Noem commutes sentence of man who stabbed three, killed one 43 years ago • South Dakota Searchlight

Gov. Kristi Noem has granted a commutation to a convicted murderer that will allow him a shot at parole, but not for another eight years.

Roscoe Primeaux, 63, arrived in prison Dec. 28, 1981, on a life sentence for second-degree murder and two four-year sentences for aggravated assault.

Primeaux was 19 years old in October 1981 when he stabbed three people at an early morning house party in Wagner. He first stabbed a woman who was trying to break up a fight between another woman and Rodney Provost. When the first victim sat down, Primeaux fatally stabbed Provost at least 15 times, then opened the door and stabbed a partygoer who’d been outside during the altercations.

Everyone had been drinking.

Primeaux ran away, but police found him covered in blood at a Wagner housing complex at 7 a.m., less than two hours after their arrival at the scene of the stabbings. At 9:40 a.m. that morning., his blood alcohol content measured 0.13 – higher than the 0.08 level at which people can be charged with driving under the influence under current law.

He hasn’t been free since.

“I turned 20 in November in the county jail,” Primeaux said, referring to his initial detainment in 1981. 

In February 2023, Primeaux appeared before the South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles. While in prison, he learned to be a diesel mechanic and took culinary arts courses, he told board members. 

“I don’t like to just sit around,” said Primeaux, who was denied a commutation from Gov. Dennis Daugaard in 2012.

The time that’s passed since that point without trouble behind the walls, the support Primeaux had from his family during his February 2023 commutation hearing, and the lack of opposition from the victims’ family members were among the factors that swayed the board toward recommending a commutation.

In his more than 40 years in prison, his record showed, he’d never been given a major write-up.

The board voted 8-1 to recommend a commutation reducing his life sentence to 300 years. That recommendation would’ve made him parole-eligible immediately.

“It’s been 10 years since Governor Daugaard said no,” said board member Peter Lieberman. “This time it’s been 41 years, not 31. I think he’s been punished adequately.”

Board Chair Myron Rau noted that Primeaux had support from some of the victims’ family members and has reached out several times to ask for forgiveness from others unsuccessfully.

“He’s done about all he can do to contact them,” Rau said.

The board can only recommend a commutation. Under the South Dakota Constitution, only a governor can grant clemency, either in the form of a commutation that lessens a current sentence or as a pardon, which wipes an old charge completely from a person’s record.

In Primeaux’s case, Gov. Noem made a 100-year adjustment to the recommendation from the board, leaving him with a 400-year sentence and setting his initial parole date for May 2032.

Power of mercy: Noem decisions highlight outsized importance of pardons in South Dakota

Noem signed Primeaux’s commutation on Feb. 23, just over a year after his hearing. South Dakota Searchlight obtained the commutation document through a public records request. Spokespersons for Noem’s office did not immediately return messages seeking comment on her decision.

The latest commutation puts the number she’s granted at 25. Primeaux went through the normal process: He applied to the board, got a hearing and earned a recommendation. 

Just after Christmas, Noem issued 12 commutations – doubling the number she’d issued until that point – to nine women and three men held on charges of felony drug ingestion. 

Noem did not respond to a request for comment about why she issued those commutations without the knowledge or review of the board, but said during her State of the State speech the following month that she’d done so to offer the women second chances.

Noem has also issued 28 pardons since the start of the year. Most of them were signed on Feb. 23, including for a man convicted of third-degree rape in 2005, another convicted of incest in 2001 and a woman convicted of aggravated assault in 2006. The remaining pardons were for lesser offenses like theft, drunken driving, disorderly conduct and marijuana or drug distribution.

Noem has issued a total of 296 pardons since taking office in 2019.

Pardons issued by Gov. Kristi Noem in January and February of 2024:

2024 Pardons -12-23 through 3-24