CA death penalty measure's accuracy upheld

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Death-penalty-measure-s-accuracy-upheld-3783184.php

The state's ballot description of a measure to abolish California's death penalty has survived a challenge to arguments about the money Proposition 34 would save and its requirement that current Death Row inmates work in prison.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley upheld the accuracy of the state's official title and summary of Prop. 34 and almost all of the ballot arguments of its supporters in time for Monday's deadline for sending the materials to the state printer.

The challenge came from prosecutors and law enforcement groups. At a hearing Friday, Frawley ordered one minor change in the wording of the arguments, in a passage that declared the measure - which would cut current spending on trials, appeals and inmate housing - "redirects $100 million to law enforcement to solve rapes and murders."

"Redirects" is misleading, Frawley said, because the $100 million would be drawn from the state's general fund, not from any savings generated by eliminating the death penalty. He ordered the word changed to "directs" to make it clear that the money would come from a separate source.

But the judge upheld the state's title and summary, drafted by Attorney General Kamala Harris' office, that says Prop. 34 would save the state and local governments about $130 million a year. Frawley also upheld ballot language saying the measure would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and would require convicted murderers to work in prison to earn compensation for their victims' families.

Those arguments are potentially important because Prop. 34's backers are trying to focus the campaign on the costs of the death penalty and the alternative of a life-without-parole sentence rather than on the viciousness of the underlying crimes, a key source of public support for capital punishment in opinion polls.