Michael Klinski
Michael Klinski
Freelance Reporter
michael.klinski@sdnewswatch.org

No.

South Dakota executed prisoners via hanging and the electric chair until the state carried out its first lethal injection execution in 2007.

Five people have been executed via lethal injection since 2007, when Elijah Page was the first execution in almost 60 years. Page was convicted of the torture and murder of Chester Allan Poage in 2000. Briley Piper remains the only person on death row. He was also involved in the killing of Poage and could face execution later this year.

Jack McCall was the state's first execution by hanging in 1877. He was convicted of killing Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood. 

Including McCall, 14 people were executed by hanging until 1915, when the state banned the death penalty. It was reinstated, and George Sitts was executed by electrocution in 1947. 

The state changed the method of execution to lethal injection in 1984, though it would take more than 30 years for the first one.

This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one.

Sources

KELO-TV, Jackley: Piper execution likely in late 2026

Sioux Falls Argus Leader, List: Charles Rhines will be South Dakota's 20th execution since 1877

Death Penalty Information Center, Death Penalty by State


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