South Dakota lawmakers want to change the state's process for how inmates can apply for clemency
PIERRE — Lawmakers want to change the process for how prisoners, who have a life sentence stemming from a violent crime, can apply for clemency and give the Board of Pardons and Paroles more discretion in the application decision.
SB 9 passed Tuesday morning out of Senate Judiciary with a contentious amendment that Sen. Brent Hoffman, R-Hartford, said undercut the purpose of the bill.
Currently, if an incarcerated person applies for clemency, and is denied, they must wait another year to reapply. Clemency applications must be heard by the Board of Pardons and Paroles and then recommended by the governor.
The original intent of the bill would’ve changed the reapplication time to four years. With the amendment, the reapplication process changes to a period of one to four years depending on the person applying for the sentence reduction.
Sen. Helene Duhamel, R-Rapid City, brought the amendment and said putting all prisoners seeking clemency into “one basket — no matter the person, the crime, the transformation — isn’t the best path forward.”
Family members, whose loved ones were murdered, testified in favor of the bill by saying that every year when the person who killed their loved one is up for a clemency hearing, they have to go to the hearing to testify against the decision.
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Karol Kniffen, whose brother Bobby Soukup was murdered in 1984 after a man broke into their Wagner home and shot him, said she and her family were notified in 2022 the man had applied for clemency and would be having a hearing to lessen his sentence.
“Before we even got started, the parole board told us if we wanted the law to read differently, we would have to change the law,” she said, adding her father is who opted for the man to receive life in prison without parole instead of the death sentence.
Kristian Ross, whose mother Mary Kay Ross was stabbed to death in 1995 as part of a murder-for-hire plot that stunned Sioux Falls, said she and her family plan to go every year the four men who were convicted of her mother’s murder are up for a commutation hearing.
“It was really hard to stand behind the man who killed my mom,” she said. “That was the reality of my entire life. Life means life.”
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Governors, as part of their executive power, get to grant sentence commutations after getting recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles. But even if the board doesn’t recommend a commutation, the governor can still reduce the person’s sentence.
It’s happened before in South Dakota. Gov. Kristi Noem commuted the sentences of three people who were serving time for manslaughter in 2022, according to South Dakota Searchlight. In the case of Tammy Kvasnicka, who had caused a 2010 fatal crash in Sioux Falls, she had applied for clemency in 2018 and 2022, but was denied both times.
Noem also granted 12 sentence reductions in 2023 for felonies all relating to drug use, according to Searchlight.
Myron Rau, who chairs the Board of Pardons and Parolws, encouraged lawmakers to adopt the amended bill. Rau it would afford more flexibility to the board. He added the men who had been mentioned during the committee meeting would probably never get through the parole board.
“This flexibility would provide a carrot versus a stick method as we do with parole applicants,” Rau said.
SB 9 will now head to the full Senate for a vote.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: What to know about clemency process changes South Dakota could see
