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New Hampshire is now the 21st U.S. state to have abolished capital punishment, after its legislature voted to override a veto by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. After a years-long effort to repeal the state's death penalty, the state's Senate voted 16-8 Thursday to finally make it official.

Calling capital punishment "archaic, costly, discriminatory and violent," Democratic state Sen. Melanie Levesque said the time has come to end it, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

"The death penalty has been an issue every New Hampshire legislator has grappled with over many years," Senate President Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, said in a statement after the historic vote. "It was a privilege today to join my colleagues in voting to repeal capital punishment in the Granite State."

The rejection of Sununu's veto had been expected even before the governor took that step on May 3, as both the Senate and House overwhelmingly had approved a bill last month changing New Hampshire's penalty for capital murder.

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capital punishment [is] "archaic, costly, discriminatory and violent,"