PIERRE, S.D. — Officers who shoot or shoot at people in self-defense can have their names protected from disclosure in legal proceedings under Marsy’s Law, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled.
Marsy’s Law, approved by South Dakota voters in 2016, creates a set of rights for crime victims and their families to protect them from harassment, the South Dakota Searchlight reported. It allows them to conceal their names from public disclosure, be notified of court proceedings and be consulted during plea negotiations.
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Law enforcement officers have since invoked the law to prevent their names from being disclosed, with the legal claim that they are crime victims acting in self-defense in the officer-involved shooting incidents.
The state’s high court upheld the legality of the practice in its April 22 ruling, which followed a criminal case filed against a suspect who shot an officer and tried to shoot others in 2025.
That suspect has already been convicted of attempted first-degree murder against law enforcement, aggravated assault against law enforcement and aggravated eluding, the Searchlight reported.
In a case brought in a different county against the same suspect, the defense alleged that the suspect couldn’t receive a fair trial if the officers involved in the incident were not named. A circuit court judge sided with the suspect, saying that the officers’ names could not be shielded under Marsy’s Law because officers cannot be viewed as crime victims while operating in their official capacity.
The state supreme court overruled the lower court, saying that releasing the officers’ names could allow them to be located or harassed, the Searchlight reported.
“Under the plain reading of Marsy’s Law, a victim is ‘a person against whom a crime or delinquent act is committed,’” the ruling says. “A law enforcement officer is a ‘person’ under every reasonable interpretation of the word.”
The Ohio State Supreme Court similarly ruled that officers’ identities can be shielded under the state’s own Marsy’s Law, while Florida’s high court ruled that neither officers nor any other crime victims can conceal their names under the provision.
