A sentence of imprisonment in a state correctional facility for any term suspends the right of the person so sentenced to hold public office, to become a candidate for public office, and to serve on a jury. Any such person so sentenced forfeits all public offices and all private trusts, authority, or power during the term of such imprisonment. Any person who is serving a term in any state correctional facility shall be a competent witness in any action now pending or hereafter commenced in the courts of this state, and the person's deposition may be taken in the same manner prescribed by statute or rule relating to taking of depositions. After a suspension of sentence pursuant to § 23A-27-18, upon the termination of the time of the original sentence or the time extended by order of the court, a defendant's rights withheld by this section are restored. However, the voting rights of any person sentenced to imprisonment in a state correctional facility shall be governed by Title 12.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-27-35
Suspension of civil rights on sentence to state correctional facility--Prisoner as witness--Restoration of rights--Voting rights
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Shamburger v. Behrens (1988)
Most recently applied in 102 F. Supp. 3d 1109 - United States v. Horse Looking (March 2015)
Source: SDC 1939, § 34.3708 as added by SL 1939, ch 132; SL 1943, ch 128; SDCL §§ 23-48-35, 23-57-7; SL 1978, ch 178, § 352; SL 2012, ch 82, § 2; SL 2023, ch 82, § 33.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.