It looks like Connecticut is about to join modern civilization: On Thursday morning, state senators voted 20-16 in favor of repealing the death penalty. The abolition bill now goes to the state House, where it’s likely to pass, and then to Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy, who said he’ll sign it.

There’s one catch: The legislation would not alter the sentences of the 11 inmates currently on Connecticut’s death row. According to the Associated Press, many officials insisted on this exception as a condition of support, which is really about punishing two particular individuals, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky. Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky were sentenced to death on October 13, 2011 and January 27, 2012, respectively, for murdering a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion. The Hartford Courant has called the case “possibly the most publicized crime in the state’s history,” and it’s simply not palatable for Connecticut politicians to effectively overturn their sentences.

Politically, this exception was unavoidable, a necessary compromise to achieve the greater good of ending the death penalty in Connecticut. But in the general scheme of things, those who oppose capital punishment have to accept that abolition won’t just affect possibly innocent people, or guilty people who can prove serious mitigating circumstances. It will mean that even obviously guilty people, including those convicted of the most heinous crimes, won’t die at the hands of the state. They’ll die in prison, instead.