The South Dakota Senate passed legislation Monday creating a new crime for people who witness a suicide attempt but intentionally fail to call for help.
Senate Bill 122, which supporters dubbed “Josh’s Bill,” passed 24-9 after emotional floor debate about the balance between preventing suicides and criminalizing traumatized witnesses.
The bill makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to intentionally fail to summon aid when physically present during a suicide attempt. The legislation requires prosecutors to prove three elements: the person was physically present, knew someone was attempting suicide or had inflicted self-harm creating imminent risk of serious bodily injury, and intentionally failed to promptly contact law enforcement, medical personnel or another person reasonably likely to secure emergency assistance.
Sen. Carl Perry, R-Aberdeen, the bill’s sponsor, told colleagues about the constituent case that inspired the legislation – a situation where someone watched for approximately five hours as an individual prepared for and completed suicide, including recording the scene on a home camera, without calling 911 or alerting the victim’s parents who were inside the home.
“Maybe it’ll be your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your kid, but maybe it’ll be somebody important to you,” Perry said during floor debate. “That’s why this is an important bill.”
The legislation includes several defenses: if the person reasonably feared imminent harm to themselves or others, reasonably believed aid had already been summoned, was under age 18, or if it was otherwise not reasonably possible to summon aid.
Sen. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, opposed the bill, raising concerns about creating criminal liability for people experiencing trauma.
“The story that was shared by the good senator from Aberdeen is a horrific story,” Karr said. “There’s a lot of other situations that this law would apply to that I’m not sure we should be making that loved one a criminal in the process of them witnessing the trauma of losing somebody that they care about.”
Sen. Amber Hulse, R-Hot Springs, defended the bill’s safeguards, emphasizing the intentionality requirement distinguishes it from cases where witnesses are frozen in shock.
“This isn’t someone who is standing there watching this happen and is in shock or something like that,” Hulse explained. “They intentionally didn’t call the police with intention to not do that.”
Sen. Greg Blanc, R-Rapid City, said the Judiciary Committee extensively amended the original bill, which had broader language about establishing a duty to assist in emergencies. The committee “hoghoused” the legislation to specifically focus on suicide attempts.
“That was our concern with the original title, that it didn’t have the word suicide in it,” Blanc said.
Multiple senators acknowledged the difficulty of legislating responses to trauma while supporting the bill’s narrow focus on intentional failure to act.
Sen. Michael Rohl, R-Aberdeen, who supported the bill, urged colleagues to address broader suicide prevention through funding for schools, mental health professionals, and rural health care.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
