If the death penalty is imposed, and if the judgment becomes final in the trial court, the sentence shall be reviewed on the record by the South Dakota Supreme Court. The clerk of the trial court, within ten days after receiving the transcript, shall transmit the entire record and transcript to the Supreme Court together with a notice prepared by the clerk and a report prepared by the trial judge. The notice shall set forth the title and docket number of the case, the name of the defendant and the name and address of his attorney, a narrative statement of the judgment, the offense, and the punishment prescribed. The Supreme Court shall consider the punishment as well as any errors enumerated by way of appeal.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-27A-9
Review by Supreme Court required when death penalty imposed--Procedure
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case State v. Rhines (1996)
Most recently applied in State v. Piper (January 2014)
Source: SL 1939, ch 137, §§ 1 to 3; SDC Supp 1960, § 34.37A16; SDCL, §§ 23-49-31, 23-49-32; SL 1979, ch 160, § 9.
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.