Saudi Arabia took another small but significant step toward modernity this weekend, ending executions for those convicted of capital offenses as minors.

Indeed, minors convicted of such offenses will now face only a maximum of 10 years in prison. Among those the ruling will save is Ali Mohammed al Nimr, a Saudi youth and Shiite activist who for five years has been under a sentence of death. The prospective execution of al Nimr, whose cleric uncle was executed in 2016, risked inflaming always-tense relations between Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority population and the ruling government.