Scott Bratland

Scott Bratland graduated from Augustana College with a BA in Secondary Education and obtained his law degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1991. He is a solo attorney at Bratland Law in Watertown, South Dakota. His practice is focused on criminal defense. Scott was lead attorney in the case of State v Jeremiah Peacemaker. The defense team worked tirelessly for 3.5 years in the defense of the case. Scott was responsible for several pretrial hearings involving Third Party Perpetrators, unlawfully seized evidence, and most notably, a Motion to Compel the prosecutor to submit DNA found at the crime scene into the CODIS database. Scott submitted multiple briefs, and eventually convinced the court to force the prosecution to enter the evidence into CODIS. The DNA revealed a suspect who had spent time in prison for solicitation of murder. Prior to State v Jeremiah Peacemaker, Scott lost a murder case and his client was ordered to serve a mandatory life sentence without parole. Scott appealed the conviction and the South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously reversed the conviction. On remand, the prosecution dropped the murder charge and Scott’s client pled to a reduced charge of manslaughter and was released from prison shortly thereafter.