Virginia lawmakers approved two bills to abolish the death penalty this Monday. The bills are now headed to Governor Ralph Northam, who will sign them into action. With the signing of these two bills, Virginia is set to become the first Southern state to eliminate the death penalty. With of vote of 22 to 16, the state senate approved the House bill that will ban execution and, instead, establish a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“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,” Northam, Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) and House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said in a joint statement. “It’s time we stop this machinery of death.”

As of 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, the state of Virginia has executed 113 people. This number is more than any other in the country. As lawmakers in the state move forward with the bills, they also hope to switch to a more just criminal justice system.