RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina's governor has halted a Republican effort to dismantle a law that gives death row inmates a new way to use racial bias as an argument for appealing their sentences.

Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have essentially repealed the Racial Justice Act.

Perdue was the one who signed the 2009 law that was designed to address concerns that racial bias has played a role in sentencing prisoners to death. It says a judge must reduce a death sentence to life in prison without parole if he determines racial bias was a significant factor in the inmate's sentencing.

Prosecutors who pushed the repeal said the act is clogging the courts with new appeals and, in effect, halting capital punishment indefinitely.

Perdue's veto means she must call lawmakers back to Raleigh to consider an override.

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