I'm a little unclear on what you're trying to achieve. Are you using a sub because this code will be called from multiple places or are you just using it because COND and the return values are too messy for a ternary?

If the latter then you might try

$value = do {
  if (COND) {
    1;
  } else {
    2;
  }
};
[download]

Either way, the second construction with the die is kinda pointless as the die can never be reached.