Republicans say that trial lawyers are abusing a law passed last year by the General Assembly aimed at reducing racial bias in death penalty cases, and they plan to introduce legislation this session to change it.

The Racial Justice Act, HB 461, gives accused murderers the right to appeal their capital sentences on the basis that race “was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose” the death penalty. The House and Senate passed the bill along partisan lines and Gov. Bev Perdue signed it into law in August.

At a press conference Thursday morning, Republicans made their case to revamp the act. Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County said that defense attorneys are using the law to assert racial discrimination before a trial even starts.

The revision, he said, would prevent defendants from making appeals under the law until after a jury had issued a sentence.

“We won’t change the scope of it, we won’t change the procedures,” Tillis said. “We will simply say that defense attorneys and accused killers are not going to have this in their toolkit before the trial even proceeds.”

Jennifer Shelton, the widow of slain Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Jeff Shelton, also spoke in support of the changes. Her husband and his partner were gunned down in 2007 after responding to a domestic disturbance call.

The defendant in the case has filed motions under the Racial Justice Act, causing a delay in the trial.

“This act does not deal with the innocence of a person, but it does give a person guilty of murder an opportunity to get off of death row,” Shelton said. “Or, in a case such as ours, it gives a person charged with murder a chance to avoid a death sentence based on statistics from other cases.”

Tillis said that he’s heard concerns about the law from both Republicans and Democrats, but the changes are likely to get a lukewarm reception from legislative leaders.

“I think it’s a little premature to be revising an act we just passed,” Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, told the Greensboro News & Record.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.