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State of South Dakota  
EIGHTY-FIRST SESSION
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY,  2006  

970M0301  
HOUSE BILL   NO.     1134  

Introduced by:     Representatives Hanks, Brunner, Buckingham, Davis, Frost, Fryslie, Garnos, Hackl, Klaudt, Krebs, McCoy, Rave, and Rhoden and Senators Lintz, Bogue, and Duenwald  



         FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to  to revise certain provisions regarding the justifiable use of force.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
     Section  1.  That § 22-5-9 be amended to read as follows:
     22-5-9.   Any person may lawfully resist , by force or violence, the commission of any public offense as follows:
             (1)      Any person, about to be injured upon reasonable apprehension of threat of bodily injury , may make sufficient resistance to prevent an offense against his or her person or the person of any family or household member thereof , or to prevent an illegal attempt by force to take or injure property in his or her lawful possession; and
             (2)      Any person may make sufficient resistance in aid or defense of a any other person, about to be injured threatened with bodily injury , to prevent such offense.
     Section  2.  That § 22-18-4 be amended to read as follows:
     22-18-4.   To use or attempt to use or offer to use force or violence upon or toward the person of another is not unlawful if committed either by any person about to be injured, or by any other person in the aid or defense of a person about to be injured, in preventing or attempting to prevent an offense against his or her own person, or in preventing any trespass or other unlawful interference with real or personal property in his or her lawful possession. However, the force or violence used cannot be more than that sufficient to prevent such offense. Any person is justified in the use of force or violence against another person when, and to the extent that, the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate the other person's trespass on, or other tortious or criminal interference with real property or personal property, lawfully in his or her possession or in the possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person whose property he or she has a legal duty to protect. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only as provided in § §  22-16-34 and 22-16-35. A person does not have a duty to retreat if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be.