As South Dakota moves forward with a hotly debated prison project, reform experts are looking at what lies ahead.

Governor Larry Rhoden last week signed a bill to construct a $650 million men’s correctional facility in Sioux Falls. Backers said it is needed to replace a more than century old prison dubbed “The Hill.” Aside from the price tag, opponents questioned the need by pointing to decreasing violent crime numbers.

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A state-spanning sting operation in June drew indictments for the owners of five smoke shops in South Dakota this week, according to Attorney General Marty Jackley.

The indictments, issued between Sept. 16 and Tuesday, were the result of targeted purchases of products marketed as legal in stores in Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City.

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The Council Bluffs Police Department was among the agencies assisting in a nationwide fraud conspiracy case that has seen four Georgia men sentenced to federal prison.

U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa announced Thursday that according to public court documents, between March 2022 and April 2024, 26-year-old Russell Tafron Weatherspoon, 23-year-old Karl Andre Dieudonne, 32-year-old Demonte Tequis Brazil, and 25-year-old Gregory Lamar Scorza ran a multi-state fraud scheme–leading victims in several states, including Iowa, to believe that an arrest warrant had been issued for them for failing to appear in court.

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South Dakota’s first state public defender and his staff of four have taken on 43 cases since taking their first this winter.

Lawmakers created and funded the Office of Indigent Legal Services in 2024 to address the ballooning cost of lawyers for people who have a constitutional right to one but can’t afford it.

The state convened a task force to address that issue in 2023, spurred in part by the doubling of county-paid public defense bills in the space of 10 years.

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Tech entrepreneur David Erickson has been acquitted of all charges — 16 in total — in an alleged tax evasion scheme. After a two-week trial, defense counsel William Mauzy and William Dooling, of Mauzy Law Office, prevailed.

“This case was very challenging, one of the more complex I have been involved with in a very long career,” Mauzy said.

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Tracy Germait has waited more than two years for a public defender in her Brown County felony drug cases.

In the time since her two cases were first opened, Germait has worked on turning her life around: She has led two addiction support groups, became a certified peer support specialist, worked toward her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice online from Colorado Tech University, gained custody of her three children and has stayed clean for 18 months.

Continue reading “Three years and more than 10,000 lawyer calls after being charged, this Wisconsin mother still doesn’t have a defense attorney” →

Hundreds of people were ticketed or arrested during a state-funded saturation patrol that put 15 additional state troopers on the streets of South Dakota’s largest city last week.

The troopers labored from Aug. 27 through Aug. 29 under the banner of “Operation Prairie Thunder,” a two-pronged public safety initiative announced in July by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden.

Continue reading “First state-funded ‘Prairie Thunder’ patrol results in 44 felony drug arrests in Sioux Falls” →

Six federal judges in South Carolina, including Chief U.S. Judge Timothy Cain, have written a letter highlighting a critical money shortage in the state’s federal criminal justice system.

The situation they shine a light on involves a lack of federal funds to pay South Carolina’s 127 private criminal defense attorneys — called “panel attorneys” — who are financed with public money to represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes, wrote U.S. Judge Timothy Cain, a former state judge and former law partner of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

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A new study from Iowa State University, published in the South Dakota Law Review, shows that over half of rural U.S. counties lack enough lawyers—including more than 20 in South Dakota. The shortage affects access to legal help for criminal, family, and estate matters.

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South Dakota’s medical cannabis industry voiced its support for sting operations targeting sellers of hemp products that create a marijuana-like high.

The comments from Jeremiah Murphy, a lobbyist for the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota, came during Tuesday’s meeting of the state’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee.

Murphy’s association represents the state’s 116 licensed medical cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and dispensaries.

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