Justice

A collage of photos of Acey Morrison at a younger age. Morrison was killed on Aug. 21, 2022 by a man who claimed self defense. (Photos courtesy of Cheryse Hawkins, illustration by Josh Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Nine months and counting: Slain transgender woman’s family frustrated by wait for justice

BY: - May 26, 2023

Prosecutors in Rapid City know who shot and killed Acey Morrison.  They’ve known since Aug. 21, 2022. That was the day the transgender member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe was shot in the mobile home of a man she’d met for an ill-fated hookup attempt that began on a dating app. What they don’t know […]

Deb and Ray Cullen, of Shippensburg, Pa., center and right, show a photo of their son, Zachary, in the office of their congressman, GOP Rep. John Joyce, left. Zachary died nine months ago at 23 of a drug overdose involving cocaine laced with illicit fentanyl. The Cullens traveled to the U.S. Capitol on May 25, 2023, to watch the House vote on the HALT Fentanyl Act. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Fentanyl-related drugs permanently made criminal under bill passed by U.S. House

BY: - May 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the U.S. House passed bipartisan legislation Thursday in an effort to curb staggering overdose deaths from illegal fentanyl substances that are illicitly produced and up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The HALT Fentanyl Act, passed on a 289-133 vote with 74 Democratic votes and support from the Biden administration, would […]

The sun sets on a wetland northwest of Hartford, South Dakota. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Biden wetlands regulation, ruling for Idaho couple

BY: - May 25, 2023

UPDATED 5 p.m. Central, 5/25/23 The U.S. Supreme Court in a major environmental decision on Thursday overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of wetlands that fall under the agency’s jurisdiction, siding with an Idaho couple who’d said they should not be required to obtain federal permits to build on their property that lacked any navigable […]

Amir Beaudion Jr. appears in court on Jan. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Canton. Beaudion is charged with first degree murder in the death of Pasqalina Esen Badi. (Photo by Abigail Dollins, reused with permission from the Argus Leader)

Death penalty dispute could go to state Supreme Court

BY: - May 18, 2023

Prosecutors in Lincoln County want the state Supreme Court to decide if it’s constitutional to seek the death penalty for a man defense attorneys say is intellectually disabled. Second Circuit Presiding Judge Robin Houwman ruled in late April that the state’s standards for intellectual disability do not comport closely enough with medical standards to pass […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, May 17, 2023. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

Three-judge panel in U.S. appeals court hears arguments in abortion pill case

BY: and - May 17, 2023

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court panel quizzed lawyers during oral arguments Wednesday over a Texas judge’s decision that could end access to the abortion pill nationwide. Observers see the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals as a legal way station for the case, in which anti-abortion groups sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, […]

Fifth Circuit Court Judge Tony Portra speaks at the Brown County listening session with members of the Indigent Legal Defense Task Force. The meeting was held in the Brown County Courthouse basement in Aberdeen on May 17, 2023. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Officials seek help for counties at first listening session on public defense costs

BY: - May 17, 2023

ABERDEEN — The caseload of defendants who can’t afford a lawyer has increased exponentially in Brown County in recent years, and public defense costs for criminal cases have more than doubled in the last decade in the county and across the state. That’s putting increased pressure on the county to cover the costs for the […]

(Illustration by Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Transgender rights group’s lawsuit against state unlikely to be resolved until 2024

BY: - May 17, 2023

More than a year could pass before a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination by the state of South Dakota is resolved. The Transformation Project, a nonprofit advocacy group working on behalf of transgender South Dakotans, filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Kristi Noem and the South Dakota Department of Health late last year after the department […]

In this photo illustration, packages of mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic on April 13, 2023, in Rockville, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Arguments on landmark abortion pill case to be heard Wednesday in appeals court

BY: - May 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — The lawsuit over access to the abortion pill goes before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Wednesday, the next step on a path that will likely end at the U.S. Supreme Court.  The three-judge panel will decide whether to keep, overturn, or alter a ruling from U.S. District Court […]

Erica Schipper is an OB-GYN physician practicing in Sioux Falls. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Physicians feel ‘trapped’ by SD’s abortion trigger law. They’re hoping to change it.

BY: - May 13, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second story in a three-part series about the impacts of South Dakota’s abortion ban. The first story examined the number of South Dakotans leaving the state for abortions. The third story looks at the effects of the abortion ban on the recruitment and retention of OB-GYNs. A wave of dread […]

An equal justice statue sits outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Minnehaha County’s new petition rules already blocked by judge

BY: and - May 12, 2023

The free speech zones designated for political petitioning on Minnehaha County property survived nine days before being halted by a federal judge. A temporary restraining order inked late Thursday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Roberto Lang blocked the county’s rules for petitioners the day after a nonprofit group filed a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality. Dakotans […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Iowa organization’s challenge to a law imposing restrictions on the sale of pork in California. (Photo by Keith Weller/USDA Agricultural Research Service)

U.S. Supreme Court rejects pork producers’ challenge of California law

BY: - May 11, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an Iowa organization’s challenge to a law imposing restrictions on the sale of pork in California. The decision marks a significant defeat for Iowa pork producers who have long argued that California’s law, backed by animal-welfare advocates, would disrupt the agricultural industry by allowing states to dictate the […]

Tina Lugo, left, shakes hands with Kendra Ringstmeyer of the Department of Labor during a graduation ceremony for Department of Corrections precision machining graduates on May 8, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Prison-based training program bolsters South Dakota workforce

BY: - May 11, 2023

There are nearly 3,500 people in the custody of South Dakota’s prisons. Most of them will walk free.  In the space of a year and a half, the state has trained and certified 57 of them in precision machining, welding and construction technology – three high-demand fields in South Dakota. The latest group of graduates, […]