S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-35A-20

Overhearing or recording communications, conversations, or jury deliberations by means of eavesdropping device as felony

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State v. Braddock (1990)

Most recently applied in Gantvoort v. Ranschau (April 2022)

Source: SL 1980, ch 181, § 20; SL 2006, ch 136, § 1; SL 2017, ch 108, § 16.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

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.

Except as provided in § 23A-35A-21, a person is guilty of a Class 5 felony who is not:

(1) A sender or receiver of a communication who intentionally and by means of an eavesdropping device overhears or records a communication, or aids, authorizes, employs, procures, or permits another to overhear or record, without the consent of either a sender or receiver of the communication;

(2) A person present during a conversation or discussion who intentionally and by means of an eavesdropping device overhears or records the conversation or discussion, or aids, authorizes, employs, procures, or permits another to overhear or record, without the consent of a party to the conversation or discussion; or

(3) A member of a jury who intentionally records or listens to by means of an eavesdropping device the deliberations of the jury or aids, authorizes, employs, procures, or permits another to record or listen.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.