What’s one thing that law enforcement and at least some of California’s 725 death row inmates agree on? The answer is we both oppose Prop. 34 on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Really – read on.

Prop. 34 would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without possibility of parole. The LAPPL has joined with the greater law enforcement community in strenuously opposing the proposition.

Now an attorney who has represented a number of death row inmates explains in a San Francisco Chronicle story how convoluted legal procedures surrounding capital punishment in California have caused most of the death row inmates to oppose Prop. 34 as well.

A recent survey by the Field Poll and the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley found that 42 percent of likely voters would repeal the death penalty while 45 percent would retain death as a punishment. Thirteen percent of likely voters are still undecided, giving interest groups on both sides of the measure incentive to press their cases through Election Day.

If Prop. 34 were to pass – and it is our fervent desire that it not – current death row inmates would have their sentences reduced to life. In the process, they would lose access to state-funded lawyers for habeas corpus. Habeas corpus allows inmates to challenge their convictions or sentence for reasons outside the trial record – typically, incompetent legal representation, misconduct by a judge or juror, or newly discovered evidence.

Therein lies the reason some death row inmates are urging would vote against Prop. 34 – had they not lost the right to vote when they were convicted.

The proponents of Prop. 34 omit the reasons for the high costs of capital punishment in California. The costs are not inherent to the penalty, but rather, the result of deliberate and improper delaying by penalty opponents.

Since passage of Proposition 8 which allowed for the death penalty, the California Supreme Court has been governed by the U.S. Constitution in deciding death penalty cases. The 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviews death penalty cases, are governed by the same body of law. Other federal circuit courts such as Texas and Virginia have no trouble expeditiously deciding death penalty appeals using the exact same law that applies to death penalty cases in California. If the death penalty system is broken, it is because federal judges, defense attorneys and legislators opposed to the death penalty do everything in their power to hinder and obstruct implementation of the penalty in California. Their maneuvers have included failing to provide funding for appellate attorneys and delaying the filing of legal briefs to avoid approving a death penalty verdict.

Families who have lost loved ones to murderers, along with the public at large, deserve honest arguments from California’s capital punishment opponents. Citing deliberately inflated costs to pass Prop. 34 isn’t one of them.

Prop. 34 is another one of those ballot measures that could go either way on Nov. 6. That is why everyone who supports “No on 34” must be sure to vote. We again urge you to exercise your right to vote – and encourage your family members and friends to join you in helping to defeat Prop. 34.

We invite you to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.