The punishment of death must be inflicted within the walls of some building at a state correctional facility. The punishment of death must be inflicted by the intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity. The secretary of corrections or a designee of the secretary shall determine the substances and the quantity of substances used for the punishment of death. Only persons trained to administer the injection, selected by the secretary or a designee of the secretary, may perform an execution carried out by intravenous injection. The persons administering the intravenous injection need not be physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, or other medical professionals licensed or registered under the laws of this or any other state. Any infliction of the punishment of death by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in the manner required by this section may not be construed to be the practice of medicine. Any pharmacist or pharmaceutical supplier is authorized to dispense to the secretary or a designee of the secretary the substance or substances used to inflict the punishment of death without prescription, for carrying out the provisions of this section, notwithstanding any other provision of law.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-27A-32
Place and manner of execution--Qualifications to administer intravenous injection--Substances dispensed to secretary of corrections or designee without prescription
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Rhines v. S.D. Dept. of Corrections (2019)
Most recently applied in Rhines v. S.D. Dept. of Corrections (October 2019)
Source: SL 1939, ch 135, § 11; SDC Supp 1960, § 34.37A11; SDCL § 23-49-20; SL 1979, ch 160, § 34; SL 1984, ch 181; SL 2007, ch 151, § 1; SL 2008, ch 117, § 26; SL 2023, ch 82, §…
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.