Fate of death penalty could rest on Calif. voters

One of the most consequential and closest watched Election Day contests in California will determine the immediate future of the death penalty in that state.

Proposition 34, one of 11 proposals on the busy statewide ballot, would abolish the death penalty and effectively shutter the nation's largest death row, where more than 700 people are awaiting execution.

Proponents of the measure, a mix of civil rights activists and capital punishment abolitionists, have argued that the system - which has not executed an inmate in six years - has grown prohibitively expensive because it takes an average of 20 years for offenders to exhaust their appeals. Opponents, largely law enforcement officials and victims' rights groups, say the cost of housing so many inmates for life would wipe out any potential savings.

Although opinion polling has long favored opponents of the measure, a poll by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Times last week showed opponents holding a slim 3-percentage-point lead, down from 13 points in September.

The tightened race has drawn a national audience of criminal justice analysts on both sides who say that passage could have implications in the 33 states using the death penalty.

"Prosecutors across the country are closely watching what happens with this, with some concern about how it could potentially impact them if this gains momentum," said Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association.

Burns, whose group represents 39,000 prosecutors, said law enforcement officials are fighting to preserve an "appropriate penalty" in the most heinous of criminal cases.

"How do you put a cost on the life of a victim?" Burns said. "Tell a family that the cost of a victim is based on some state budget."

California budget problems, however, are among the most severe in the nation. And proposition supporters - including former California prison warden Jeanne Woodford - cite a 2011 study by a federal judge and a Loyola Law School professor as a leading exhibit in their argument.

The study found that $4 billion in taxpayer funds was spent on capital punishment since its reinstatement in California in 1978. Among the biggest costs for maintaining the death penalty were state-funded legal representation and increased security requirements for death row inmates, the study found.

Cory Salzillo, legislative director for the California District Attorneys Association, whose group opposes the measure, questioned the savings given the high cost of prison housing, especially health care.

"It may save money on the front end (by resentencing inmates to life)," Salzillo said. "But with all the prison costs on the back end, it's a wash.''

USA Today