South Dakota Executions: History, Methods, and Death Row

South Dakota carries out executions by lethal injection and reserves the death penalty for first-degree murder and other Class A felonies where the prosecution proves at least one statutory aggravating circumstance. Five people have been put to death in the modern era, the most recent in 2019, and one man currently sits on the state’s death row. The system runs through a jury sentencing phase, years of state and federal appeals, and a final chance at executive clemency before a sentence is carried out.

Who Has Been Executed in the Modern Era

South Dakota went sixty years without an execution after George Sitts died in the electric chair in 1947. The modern era began in 2007, after the legislature reinstated capital punishment in 1979 under a revised statutory framework following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia.¹

Four people have been executed since then, all by lethal injection:

Elijah Page, July 2007, for the torture-murder of Chester Allan Poage. Page had waived his remaining appeals, and his was the first lethal injection in state history.
Eric Robert, October 2012, for killing correctional officer Ronald “R.J.” Johnson during an escape attempt at the state penitentiary.
Rodney Berget, October 2018, Robert’s co-defendant in the same killing.
Charles Rhines, November 4, 2019, after more than two decades on death row for the 1992 stabbing of a co-worker.

The first execution of any kind in what is now South Dakota was the 1877 hanging of Jack McCall in Yankton for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok.¹

When the Death Penalty Can Be Imposed

South Dakota authorizes the death penalty only for Class A felonies. A Class A felony conviction carries one of two sentences: death or life imprisonment. The court may also impose a fine of up to $50,000.²

First-degree murder is the main Class A felony. But a conviction alone does not open the door to execution. The prosecution must prove at least one of ten statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt:³

A prior Class A or Class B felony conviction, or a prior felony conviction for a crime of violence.
Knowingly creating a great risk of death to multiple people in a public place with a weapon or device hazardous to more than one person.
Killing for money or anything of monetary value.
Killing a current or former judge or prosecutor targeted because of their official duties.
Directing someone else to kill, or killing as an agent or employee of another.
Torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery. The murder of any child under 13 automatically qualifies.
Killing a law enforcement officer, corrections employee, or firefighter acting in their official capacity.
Killing while in lawful custody or after escape from lawful confinement.
Killing to prevent or interfere with a lawful arrest.
Killing during the manufacturing or distribution of Schedule I or II controlled substances.

Defendants who were under 18 at the time of the offense are not eligible for the death penalty. State law caps their sentence at a term of years, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons.²⁴

How a Death Sentence Is Decided

A capital case moves in two stages. The jury first decides guilt. If it convicts on a Class A felony, the case proceeds to a separate sentencing hearing, where the prosecution puts on evidence of aggravating circumstances and the defense presents mitigating evidence such as the defendant’s background, mental health, or role in the crime.⁵

To return a death sentence, the jury must find at least one aggravating circumstance proven beyond a reasonable doubt and must recommend death. The jurors have to designate in writing which aggravating circumstances they found. If the jury recommends death, the judge imposes it. If not, the judge must sentence the defendant to life imprisonment. There is no judicial override in either direction.

This jury-driven process does not apply in every scenario. When a case is tried without a jury or the defendant pleads guilty, sentencing follows a different path outside the jury-recommendation framework.

How Executions Are Carried Out

State law requires that executions take place by lethal injection, inside a building at a state correctional facility. The statute does not name specific drugs. It authorizes the secretary of corrections, or a designated official, to use “a substance or substances in a lethal quantity.”⁶

The people who administer the injection do not have to be doctors, nurses, or other licensed medical personnel. The statute expressly states that performing a lethal injection under this law is not the practice of medicine. Pharmacists and pharmaceutical suppliers may provide the drugs to the secretary without a prescription.

The Department of Corrections has used three possible drug protocols depending on availability and the date of conviction. A three-drug protocol uses an anesthetic (sodium thiopental or pentobarbital), pancuronium bromide to stop breathing, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. A two-drug version omits the potassium chloride. A single-drug protocol uses a lethal dose of the anesthetic alone.⁷

The identity of anyone who supplies or administers the drugs is confidential. Courts cannot order disclosure, and revealing the information is a Class 1 misdemeanor.⁸

Once appeals are exhausted, the sentencing court issues a warrant designating a week for the execution.⁹ A statutory list of officials must be notified at least two days before, including the attorney general, the trial judge, the local state’s attorney and sheriff, representatives of the victim, and at least one member of the news media. The condemned person may have up to five witnesses present, drawn from counsel, clergy, relatives, or friends.¹⁰

Appeals, Federal Habeas, and Clemency

Years of review stand between a death sentence and an execution. The defendant first appeals through the state court system, raising trial errors, sufficiency of the evidence, and constitutional claims. If the South Dakota Supreme Court affirms, the defendant can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

After state remedies are exhausted, the defendant can file a federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. This is not a retrial. A federal court can grant relief only if the state court’s decision was contrary to clearly established federal law as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court, or rested on an unreasonable reading of the facts. State court factual findings are presumed correct, and the petitioner has to rebut that presumption with clear and convincing evidence. Poor performance by a lawyer during state post-conviction proceedings is not grounds for federal relief.¹¹

Even after the courts are done, a death row inmate can seek clemency from the governor, who has authority to grant pardons, commutations, reprieves, and remission of fines. The governor may delegate the hearing of clemency applications to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, but the board’s recommendation is advisory. The governor retains full discretion.¹²

Before the board considers any clemency application, it must give at least 30 days’ notice to the original prosecutor, the sentencing judge, the attorney general, and law enforcement in the county of the crime. Opponents may appear and testify. An application cannot be heard until at least two years after judgment. If denied, an inmate convicted of a crime of violence and sentenced to life must wait four years to reapply; other applicants wait one year.

Constitutional Limits

Several U.S. Supreme Court decisions limit who can be executed regardless of state law. People with intellectual disabilities cannot be executed under Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which held that doing so violates the Eighth Amendment. States generally must follow clinical definitions when assessing eligibility.

Someone who is not mentally competent to understand the execution and the reason for it also cannot be put to death. In Ford v. Wainwright (1986), the Supreme Court held that executing a prisoner who lacks that awareness violates the Eighth Amendment, and states must provide a fair competency process in which the prisoner and counsel can participate.¹³

And under Roper v. Simmons (2005), no one who was under 18 at the time of the offense can be executed.⁴

South Dakota’s Current Death Row

Briley Piper is the only person on South Dakota’s death row. He was sentenced to death for his role in the 2000 kidnapping, torture, and murder of Chester Allan Poage, the same crime for which Elijah Page was executed in 2007. Piper is housed at the G. Norton Jameson Annex at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

His case has moved through state and federal courts for more than two decades, with the sentence overturned and reinstated multiple times. In May 2026, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of his federal habeas petition, rejecting arguments about the validity of his guilty pleas and claims of ineffective counsel. The court found his challenges procedurally defaulted under South Dakota’s rules and concluded that no prejudice warranted a new trial.¹⁴

1
South Dakota Department of Corrections. Frequent Questions – Capital Punishment
2
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Laws 22-6-1 – Felony Classes and Penalties
3
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A-1 – Mitigating and Aggravating Circumstances
4
Justia. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551
5
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A – Capital Punishment
6
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A-32 – Place and Manner of Execution
7
Death Penalty Information Center. South Dakota Department of Corrections – Execution of an Inmate
8
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A-31.2 – Confidentiality of Identity
9
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A-31 – Warrant of Death Sentence and Execution
10
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-27A-34.2 – Witnesses Permitted to Defendant
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2254 – State Custody; Remedies in Federal Courts
12
South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 24-14 – Board of Pardons and Paroles
13
Justia. Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399
14
Justia Law. Piper v. A.G., No. 25-2617 (8th Cir. 2026)