Virginia has become the first Southern US state to abolish the death penalty after its governor signed into law a bill that ends capital punishment, writes BBC.

Governor Ralph Northam said the repeal would stop a “machinery of death” with a history of racial disparities.

It comes at a time of renewed national debate on the topic of executions.

Virginia has executed more people than any other state except Texas since capital punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1976. Since then, the vast majority of executions have taken place in the Southern US states that made up the former slave-owning Confederacy.

Executions are still authorised in 27 states across the country, though several have enacted a moratorium on carrying the punishment out.