Update: Bill receives final approval in by House and now returns to the Senate.

(RALEIGH) -- A bill revising the Racial Justice Act was tentatively approved by the North Carolina House of Representatives but not before passionate debate on the issue. Cumberland County Representative Rick Glazier argued that the statistics used in the first and only Racial Justice Act case in the state, showed minority jurors were disproportionately dismissed from juries and that's a fact that's impossible to ignore.

"The probability of this disparity occurring in a racially neutral jury selection process is less than one in 10 trillion squared," said Glazier.

Representative Nelson Dollar of Wake County told his colleagues that the Racial Justice Act is not about numbers. He discussed a conversation with a judge who had presided over 30 capital cases.

"He said people do not know what these killers are all about," said Dollar.  "They haven't seen them.  They haven't read crime records.  They don't know about a little girl left mutilated and dying in a pea field."

The bill needs a final vote in the House before it moves on to the Senate and then it must be signed by the Gov. Perdue before becoming law. There appears to be enough support in the House to override any veto attempt by the Governor.