Death row prisoners have vested interest in US election

Death row prisoners have vested interest in US election

A statewide ballot on US election day may give California's 727 Death Row inmates a reprieve.

Nick Allen reports.

They can't vote but 727 cold blooded killers waiting to be executed in California have more interest than most in the results of Tuesday's US election. 

For them polling day is literally a matter of life and death as, alongside the presidential vote, a statewide ballot is taking place on whether they should all be given a reprieve. 

The measure, known as Proposition 34, would retroactively abolish the death penalty in America's most populous state, replacing it with a sentence of life in jail without parole. 

If approved it could have a knock-on effect in some of the 32 other US states where capital punishment is law.