# State v. Smith

> South Dakota Supreme Court · June 30, 1999 · 599 N.W.2d 344

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9514634

## Case

- **Full name:** STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Bruce Edgar SMITH, Sr., Defendant and Appellant
- **Court:** South Dakota Supreme Court
- **Decided:** June 30, 1999
- **Citations:** 599 N.W.2d 344; 1999 SD 83; 1999 S.D. LEXIS 102
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Sabers
- **Judges:** Gilbertson, Konenkamp, Miller, Issues, Issue, Amundson, Sabers
- **Cited by:** 58 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9514634

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that the prosecutor's comments referring to the defendant as a "monster," "sexual predator," and "pervert," although "abhorrent and misconduct," did not rise to a prejudicial level and were held to have been very unlikely to have altered the jury's verdict
- finding “[t]he prosecutor’s penchant for making statements meant to inflame the passion of the jury and go outside the realm of admissible evidence, is an example of the unprofessional, ‘win-at-all costs’ attitude that scars the judicial system”
- holding prosecutorial misconduct is prejudicial when it “so infect[s] the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting convictions a denial of due process”
- finding nonprejudicial misconduct where prosecutor repeatedly called defendant a “monster,” “pervert,” “child molester,” “sexual predator,” and a “tyrant”

## Opinion text

SABERS, Justice
(dissenting).
[¶ 70.] I agree in spirit with Justice Ko-nenkamp’s writing. However, this is the second time this prosecutor’s actions are an issue on appeal. See State v. Stetter, 513 N.W.2d 87, 90 (1994). See also id. at 96-97 (Amundson, J., dissenting).
*358 [¶ 71.] Therefore, I join Justice Amund-son’s dissent on issue four.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9514634. Public record. Not legal advice.