If, upon a trial by jury, a person is convicted of a Class A felony, a sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the jury verdict at the presentence hearing includes a finding of at least one aggravating circumstance and a recommendation that such sentence be imposed. If an aggravating circumstance is found and a recommendation of death is made, the court shall sentence the defendant to death. If a sentence of death is not recommended by the jury, the court shall sentence the defendant to life imprisonment. The provisions of this section shall not affect a sentence when the case is tried without a jury or when a court accepts a plea of guilty.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-27A-4
Aggravating circumstance and recommendation of death penalty required for Class A felony death sentencing--Life imprisonment--Bench trial or guilty plea
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Spaziano v. Florida (1984)
Most recently applied in Piper v. Young (December 2019)
Source: SL 1979, ch 160, § 4.
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.