(RALEIGH) -- Republican leaders in the state House are pushing to change a 2009 law aimed at preventing racial bias in death penalty cases. House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Stam said he is working on legislation to revise the so-called Racial Justice Act.

Stam said the proposal would allow the death penalty to resume in North Carolina.  "It's to make sure that when premeditated, cold-blooded murders kill other people that they have a realistic possibility that they'll be executed," said Stam.

Stam added that the existing law has essentially led to a three-year moratorium on the death penalty. "The so-called Racial Justice Act has very little to do with race and almost nothing to do with justice, because it treats people as groups instead of individuals."

Likely House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate president Phil Berger have also been vocal critics of the Racial Justice Act.