Ravnsborg removed from office following conviction on two impeachment charges

(Pierre, SD) -- Jason Ravnsborg is out as the Attorney General of the State of South Dakota.

The decision came down Tuesday afternoon after the South Dakota State Senate convicted the first-term Attorney General of two impeachment charges, following the 2020 death of Joseph Boever. Ravnsborg struck Boever on the evening of September 12 west of Highmore. Ravnsborg, 46, was returning home from a South Dakota Republican Party fundraiser.

On the first article of impeachment, which would remove Ravnsborg from the Office of Attorney General, passed with 24 Senators voting in favor -- the same amount of Senators needed to pass the article. The second article of impeachment, relating to malfeasance in office, passed with 31 Senators supporting the article.

Senators also barred Ravnsborg from "holding any office of trust or profit under the state, as a result of being convicted on the first article of impeachment." 

"The result to impeach has to go hand-in-hand with the message you send about whether that person can hold public office in our state, that 'yes' is the appropriate vote," Senator Lee Schoenbeck (R-Watertown) said prior to the casting of the final votes.