The lawmakers of the state of Virginia on Monday passed a landmark bill, called HB 2263, that would effectively abolish the death penalty in the state, making it the first in southern US to take the step, according to US media reports. 

The bill will now be given to the state’s governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who has made it clear that he will sign the bill. In a statement released after the bill was passed, he said that the death penalty is, “inequitable, ineffective, and inhumane.”

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He further added, “Over Virginia’s long history, this commonwealth has executed more people than any other state. And, like many other states, Virginia has come too close to executing an innocent person. It’s time we stop this machinery of death”, reported CNN. 

The bill, which previously got 57-41 votes in the House, got through the second stage in the state’s senate with a 22-16 vote majority. 

Once commissioned into a law by the state’s governor, the bill is set to immediately commute all the people on death row in the state and instead amend their sentence to life imprisonment. The law will take effect from July 2021. 

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If and when passed, it will make the state of Virginia the 23rd state in the US to abolish the practice after the Supreme Court put it back into force in 1976, reported CNN. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, over 1,300 people have received capital punishment for their crimes in the state of Virginia since 1608.