A California legislative committee has backed a moratorium on future executions after a hearing which heard from two men convicted of murder but later exonerated.
The California Assembly's public safety committee voted 4-2 to enact a moratorium while experts study the implementation of society's ultimate punishment.
The measure still requires approval in the coming months from another assembly committee, the entire legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yesterday, New Jersey lawmakers approved a death penalty moratorium, making it the first state legislature to block capital punishment since its resumption in 1977.
California legislators heard from Tom Goldstein, who was convicted of first-degree murder but exonerated a quarter of a century later.
"We can attest that these flaws are neither abstractions nor possibilities," Mr Goldstein said.
"We can attest that these flaws are real and have real consequence and recognise we have a duty to warn others about these flaws.
The committee also heard from Rick Walker, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1991 and released 12 years later after being cleared.
Neither Mr Goldstein nor Mr Walker was sentenced to death. Others who were sentenced to death but later exonerated attended the hearing but did not testify.
California has 646 inmates on death row, but the nation's most populous state rarely executes however, with some inmates awaiting capital punishment since the late 1970s as their appeals move slowly through the courts.
Last month, after considerable public debate, officials at San Quentin prison executed by lethal injection Stanley Tookie Williams, a former Crips gang leader who later penned anti-gang books.
Clarence Ray Allen (75) is slated to face the same fate next Tuesday in what would be the state's 13th execution in recent decades. Mr Schwarzenegger is to announce his decision on whether to grant clemency in the coming days.