S.D. Codified Laws § 22-11-19

Current through the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 22-11-19 - Tampering with a witness-Felony

Any person who injures or threatens to injure any person or property; who offers, confers, or agrees to confer any benefit on a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding; or who corruptly persuades or corruptly influences another person to induce the witness to:

(1) Testify falsely;

(2) Withhold any testimony, information, document, or thing;

(3) Elude legal process summoning the witness to testify or supply evidence; or

(4) Absent himself or herself from an official proceeding to which the witness has been legally summoned;

is guilty of tampering with a witness. Any person who injures, or threatens to injure, any person or property in retaliation for that person testifying in an official proceeding, or for cooperating with law enforcement, government officials, investigators, or prosecutors, is guilty of tampering with a witness. Tampering with a witness is a Class 4 felony.

For the purposes of this section, the term, corruptly, means wrongful or immoral and done with an intent to impede the administration of justice.

SDCL 22-11-19

SDC 1939, § 13.1246; SDCL, § 19-5-15; SL 1976, ch 158, §§ 11-14; SL 1978, ch 158, § 6; SL 1986, ch 179; SL 2004, ch 148, §1; SL 2005, ch 120, §213; SL 2023, ch 68, §1.

Amended by S.L. 2023, ch. 68,s. 1, eff. 7/1/2023.