Okla. Governor Stalls Execution Pending Controversial Lethal Drug

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a last minute stay on the execution of an inmate on Thursday as the state continues to sort through its lethal drug dilemma.

Fallin issue the 37-day stay in the execution of Richard Glossip this week after the Department of Corrections noted that it had potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride as a mixture for the lethal drug cocktail set to be used on Glossip, who was found guity of hiring a coworker to kill his boss in 1997.

As CNN reports, Glossip would have been the first person to be executed in the state following the approval of a controversial new type of lethal injection drug.

"Last-minute questions were raised today about Oklahoma's execution protocol and the chemicals used for lethal injection," Fallin said in a statement regarding the delay. "After consulting with the attorney general and the Department of Corrections, I have issued a 37-day stay of execution while the state addresses those questions and ensures it is complying fully with the protocols approved by federal courts."

Opponents of the death penalty and the new, controversial lethal injection cocktail have applauded Fallin's stay, arguing that more information regarding potassium acetate must be known before it is admistered to death row prisoners.

"Potassium acetate is a food preservative, but today it was a Richard Glossip preservative because he is still alive," Sister Helen Prejean, who Glossip's spiritual advisor, told NBC News.

Oklahoma and other states received criticism in 2014 for administering a newly-formed cocktail of lethal drugs that witnesses say caused recipients to writhe in pain and convulse, as well as suffer heart attacks from the medication.

One of the most notable recipients of the new drug, Clayton Lockett, reportedly died 43 minutes after being sedated.