President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law the Death Penalty Abolition Act.
Zimbabwe currently has over 60 prisoners on death row who will now have their sentences commuted. The last execution in the country was nearly two decades ago in 2005.
Parliament had pushed to amend the Criminal Law Code, Criminal Procedure Law and the Defence Act which allowed the death penalty in cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.
International bodies such as Amnesty International have called for the removal of the death penalty, arguing it violates the right to life.
Mnangagwa had since expressed he is against capital punishment, sharing his own experience when his death sentence for blowing up a train during the 1960s war was commuted to 10 years in prison.
"Abolition of death penalty Notwithstanding any other law - no court shall impose sentence of death upon a person for any offence, whenever committed, but instead shall impose whatever other competent sentence is appropriate in the circumstances of the case;
"the Supreme Court shall not confirm a sentence of death imposed upon an appellant, whenever that sentence may have been imposed, but instead shall substitute whatever other competent sentence is appropriate in the circumstances of the case: no sentence of death, whenever imposed, shall be carried out," reads part of the act.
Additionally, any death sentence given by a military court will automatically change to a life sentence in a civilian prison, with a non-release period of 20 years.
"Every sentence of death that a military court lawfully imposes under this Act-- is automatically commuted to a sentence of imprisonment for life in a civilian prison (subject to a non-release period of twenty years, or such lesser non-release period as the court martial may specify); and upon the sentence of the military court being confirmed by the confirming authority in terms of section 63, be referred without delay (and without the need to lodge a formal appeal) to the Court Martial Appeal Court for confirmation or, where the Appeal Court so deems it fit in the interests of justice, for resentencing or for disposal in such other manner as the Appeal Court deems to be fit in the interests of justice.
"For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that the provisions of this Act bearing on the death penalty shall have full force with effect from the date when any state of public emergency is declared in terms of section 113 of the Constitution, up to the date when such declaration lapses or ceases to have effect in terms of section 113(4) of the Constitution (whether in the interim the declaration has been renewed or not)."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"The Commissioner-General of the Prisons and Correctional Service shall do everything within their respective competences to ensure that, as soon as practicable after the fixed date, every prisoner under sentence of death is brought before the High Court to be sentenced afresh for the offence for which the death sentence was imposed upon him or her."
In Africa, 24 countries including Zambia have fully abolished the death penalty.
