NEW YORK - Despite a last-minute effort to insert exceptions into a measure to ban the use of chokeholds by the NYPD, Mayor de Blasio said Thursday he is prepared to sign the legislation as written.

"I've worked on this closely in the last few days, I am now convinced this is the right legislation to move forward with, and I will sign it," de Blasio said during his daily briefing at City Hall.

The comments mark a turnaround after weeks in which the mayor said he believed an exception should be included in the bill language to allow officers to use the maneuver in life or death situations. 

After failing to get that included in the bill, the administration then proposed another loophole, which would have allowed an officer to sit, kneel or stand on someone's back or chest under certain circumstances.

Neither exception is included in the bill, which the City Council is expected to pass Thursday. 

When the measure was first introduced in 2014, following the death of Eric Garner, de Blasio said he would veto the legislation, saying the NYPD patrol guide and state law prevented an officer from using the dangerous maneuver. 

In the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, several police departments around the country have banned the practice.