State Attorney General Mike Hunter said Wednesday that Oklahoma will move ahead with a new execution protocol that calls for death row inmates to be executed by inhaling an inert gas, most likely nitrogen. He says the state can no longer sit on the sidelines, unable to locate the drugs required for lethal injections. There are 16 death row inmates in Oklahoma who have exhausted all their appeals. Oklahoma was the first state to use lethal injection to execute inmates. It would be the first to execute an inmate using inert gas.