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RALEIGH -- Once again, lawmakers plan to examine if state laws should change based on evidence of racial bias in death penalty cases. This comes just one month after Gov. Perdue vetoed a bill which would have essentially repealed the current Racial Justice Act.

Friday, a house committee is holding its first meeting. They plan to discuss whether death row inmates should still be allowed to challenge their sentences on the basis of racial bias. After the governor's veto, lawmakers want to see if a compromise can be reached.

The 2009 law created a new legal method through which a judge who determines race was a basis for a death sentence against someone can reduce it to life in prison without parole. Last year, the House and Senate passed legislation which would have essentially repealed the current Racial Justice Act. But Gov. Perdue did not give it her stamp of approval.

Opponents like Sen. Phil Berger have said the law is too broad.

"White defendant, white victim, white jury. Racial justice, and there is nothing in the bill itself--or was nothing in the bill itself--for court to say dismissed," he said. "It can't happen. It's not so. The court has to go through the same process."

The first evidentiary hearing involving the Racial Justice Act is going on in Cumberland County. Convicted killer Marcus Robinson wants a judge to rule that racial bias affected his murder trial in 1994.

His lawyers have emphasized research that says prosecutors were twice as likely to excuse a black juror from a capital murder trial than a white juror.

"My main concern was, it wasn't a random sample, as opposed to if the eligible population were of all capital trials," said Dr. Joseph Katz, an applied statistician.

The panel can make recommendations by May.

Stay with News 14 Carolina and News14.com for updates.