Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in South Dakota

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

South Dakota has no single "expunge my conviction" statute. Two narrow routes reach a conviction, and both seal rather than destroy—§ 23A-3-26 defines expungement as sealing and says it "does not imply the physical destruction of records."

The main route runs through a suspended imposition of sentence. When a person completes probation, the discharge and dismissal are "without court adjudication of guilt" and "shall not be deemed a conviction" (§ 23A-27-14), and the court then seals all official records (§ 23A-27-17). The second route is the automatic removal of the smallest cases from the public record (§ 23A-3-34).

Automatic or clean-slate relief

Section 23A-3-34 supplies the only automatic conviction relief. A charge or conviction "where a petty offense, municipal ordinance violation, or a Class 2 misdemeanor was the highest charged offense shall be automatically removed from a defendant's public record after five years" once all court-ordered conditions are satisfied and the person has picked up no further offense in that window. Nothing is filed. Everything above a Class 2 misdemeanor, and every felony, falls outside this automatic path.

Convictions eligible by petition

There is no petition to seal an already-entered ordinary conviction. Relief depends on the disposition the person received at sentencing. A suspended imposition of sentence is available once for a first-time felony offender under § 23A-27-13 and once for a misdemeanor under § 23A-27-12.2 (both referenced in § 23A-27-14). Completing probation converts that disposition into a discharge and sealing. The eligibility question therefore turns on whether the court granted a suspended imposition at sentencing, rather than on a petition filed years later.

Excluded offenses and statuses

Section 23A-27-13 limits the felony suspended imposition to offenses "not punishable by death or life imprisonment" and to a person "never before convicted of a crime that at the time of conviction constitutes a felony," and allows it only once in a lifetime. Section 23A-27-13.3 adds an outright bar: no suspended imposition for rape under § 22-22-1(2) or (3). Automatic removal is confined to petty, municipal-ordinance, and Class 2 misdemeanor cases.

Waiting period and when it starts

The two routes measure time differently. Automatic removal runs five years from satisfaction of all court-ordered conditions on the case, and the person must stay conviction-free across those five years (§ 23A-3-34). The suspended-imposition route has no fixed number: sealing follows the discharge, which happens whenever the person finishes the probation term the court set (§§ 23A-27-13, 23A-27-14).

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Both routes are completion-gated. Discharge under the suspended-imposition route requires "completion of the observance of all conditions imposed" during probation (§ 23A-27-14)—which includes any restitution or program the court ordered. Automatic removal requires that "all court-ordered conditions on the case have been satisfied" and no new conviction within the five years (§ 23A-3-34).

Petition process and decision standard

For the suspended-imposition route, the court services officer or the defendant brings the completed case to the court's attention, the clerk enters a formal discharge, and the sealing order issues under § 23A-27-17. Automatic removal is self-executing and needs no motion. Where the general expungement chapter does apply—principally to arrests and non-convictions—the court may order expungement only on clear and convincing evidence that the ends of justice and the best interest of the public and the person are served (§ 23A-3-30).

Who can still see or use the record

Sealing bars disclosure but does not erase the file (§ 23A-3-26). After a suspended-imposition discharge, § 23A-27-17 seals all official records "other than the nonpublic records to be retained by the Division of Criminal Investigation," restores the person "to the status he occupied before his arrest," and protects them from a perjury charge for not acknowledging the case. A case that is automatically removed under § 23A-3-34 still "remains available to court personnel or as authorized by order of the court and may be used as an enhancement in the prosecution of subsequent offenses."

What trips people up

A straight conviction with a sentence usually cannot be cleared. If you were convicted and sentenced (not given a suspended imposition) and the offense is above a Class 2 misdemeanor, South Dakota's general chapter does not offer a sealing petition for it.

The Division of Criminal Investigation keeps a nonpublic copy. Section 23A-27-17 seals court and agency records but expressly carves out the DCI's nonpublic records, so the state's criminal-history file is not erased.

"Removed from the public record" is not gone. An automatically removed minor case can still be pulled by court order and used to enhance a later prosecution (§ 23A-3-34).

Common questions

Is South Dakota expungement mostly about arrests? Yes. The general chapter (§§ 23A-3-26 to 23A-3-35) is built around arrests that did not lead to conviction—no charge filed, dismissal, or acquittal—plus diversion records.

Can I use a suspended imposition twice? No. Section 23A-27-14 allows the discharge only once for a suspended imposition under § 23A-27-13 and once under § 23A-27-12.2, and § 23A-27-13 bars a second felony suspended imposition outright.

Do I have to file anything for the five-year automatic removal? No. Section 23A-3-34 removes the qualifying minor case from the public record automatically once the conditions and five-year clean period are met.

Does a pardon clear my record? A gubernatorial pardon is separate relief with its own rules and is not the sealing routes described here.

Statutes and sources

• SDCL § 23A-3-26 — expungement defined as sealing, not destruction. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-3-26 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-3-30 — clear-and-convincing standard for an expungement order. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-3-30 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-3-34 — automatic five-year removal of petty, municipal-ordinance, and Class 2 misdemeanor cases, with the court-access and enhancement carve-outs. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-3-34 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-27-13 — suspended imposition of a felony sentence: first-time, non-death/life, once only. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-27-13 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-27-13.3 — no suspended imposition for rape under § 22-22-1(2) or (3). https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-27-13.3 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-27-14 — discharge and dismissal without adjudication of guilt, not deemed a conviction, once-only limit. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-27-14 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 23A-27-17 — sealing of records on discharge, DCI nonpublic-records carve-out, restoration of status, and no perjury for nondisclosure. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/23A-27-17 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 22-22-1(2)–(3) — the rape subdivisions excluded from suspended imposition by § 23A-27-13.3. https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/22-22-1.html?all=true (accessed 2026-08-13)
• SDCL § 26-7A-115 — separate juvenile-record sealing route. https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/26-7A-115.html?all=true (accessed 2026-08-13)