KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — The Caribbean island of Barbados plans to abolish its mandatory death penalty for murder convictions — a penalty that the government has bypassed for three decades.

No killer has been executed in Barbados since 1984 despite the law, but Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite told reporters Tuesday that the automatic penalty should be formally dropped. He said the government is preparing legislation to remove the clause that prevents judges from taking into account the circumstances in which a slaying was committed or other mitigating factors.