Basic Death Penalty Information in South Dakota:
Based on the Death Penalty Information Center(http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state) the mid-western state of South Dakota does have the Death Penalty. The sentence is determined by the jury. South Dakota’s Death Row facility is located in Souix Falls. The method for the process is injection. The number of executions since the year of 1976 has been a minimal 1. Before the year of 1976 there were a total of 15. The current Death Row inmates are 3 and none of them are women. The Death Penalty was re-enacted in 01/01/1979. The murder rate (per 100,000 people) is 2.1. Life without parole is an option in South Dakota. A Defendant can receive death for a felony in which he/she was not responsible for. The number of Clemencies granted, as well as, the number of innocent persons released from death row are both 0.
First Recorded Death Penalty Case:
The first recorded execution in South Dakota was on the 1st of March, 1877. The person executed was a 24 year old white male by the name of Jack McCall. He was found guilty of murder. The mode of execution was hanging. The last recorded execution in South Dakota was 70 years and 38 days later on the 8th of April 1947. This person was also a white male. His name was George Sitts, age 33. George, just as Jack McCall, was found guilty of murder. George, however, was executed by way of electrocution.
What cannot be seen in the data here is that all but one of the executions performed in South Dakota were done by hanging. This makes the execution of Jack McCall unique in two ways; he was not only the last person to be executed in South Dakota , but was also the only person to be executed by electrocution. South Dakota has not done an execution in over 60 years.
South Dakota Parole Statistics:
The state of South Dakota has 3,440 entries and 3,087 exits for the year of 2006 with a total population of 5,661 adults on probation (thus, a probation rate of 959 per 100,000 adult residents) (Bonczar, and Glaze, 2006). The parole system of South Dakota has 2,054 entries and 1,731 exits with a total population of 2,767 adults on parole (thus, a parole rate of 469 per 100,000 adult residents) (Bonczar, and Glaze, 2006). Clearly, the state of South Dakota has a higher probation rate than parole. The state of Texas has a total of 431,967 adults on probation (yielding a probation rate of 2,515 per 100,000 adults) compared to 100,053 adults on parole (yielding a parole rate of 583 per 100,000 adults) (Bonczar, and Glaze, 2006). When one compares the two states it is noticeable that both tend to have higher rates of probation compared to parole; perhaps, because of the reasons discussed in class (for example, one serving probation is less socially stigmatizing than one serving prison time). Also noticeable is the higher rate of probation for the state of Texas compared to South Dakota (2,515 per 100,000 versus 959 per 100,000 in South Dakota); this difference might be because of several factors (South Dakota might use restorative justice programs more often than probation). Thus, as one could see, probation is used more often than parole in the criminal justice systems of South Dakota and Texas.
Restorative Justice Information in South Dakota:
The center for restorative Justice is a helpful program. Their motto is, “We promote healing between people separated by conflict, mediation education and peacemaking processes.” They offer a variety of programs and services but their most successful one is the Voices of Understanding. This program offers an open dialogue type setting which allows for a healthy, yet neutral environment. This program receives funding from sponsors and there are several ways in which one can contribute. Simply visit the website http://www.cfrj.org/membership.html and fill out their online membership form.
Citations:
Citation for Basic Death Penalty Information in South Dakota: Death Penalty Information Center (2009) State by State Database: Retrieved from the World Wide Web on November 16, 2009 from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state
Citation for First Recorded Death Penalty Case: Death Penalty Execution Center (2009). Executions in the U.S. 1608-2002: The Espy File. Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ESPYyear.pdf
Citation for South Dakota Parole Statistics: Bonczar, T. and Glaze, L. (2006). United State Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Probation and Parole in the United States, 2006 NCJ 220218 [Table 1: Adults on Probation]. Retrieved from https://webcampus.nevada.edu/webct/urw/lc33129041.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Bonczar, T. and Glaze, L. (2006). United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Probation and Parole in the United States, 2006 NCJ 220218 [Table 3: Adults on Parole]. Retrieved from https://webcampus.nevada.edu/webct/urw/lc33129041.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Citation for Restorative Justice Information in South Dakota: Center for Restorative Justice (2009) Retrieved from the World Wide Web at http://www.cfrj.org/membership.html on November 17, 2009
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