Goa, Nov. 13 -- GLADSTONE D'COSTA

Christa Pike, now 50 years old, was found guilty of a particularly brutal mur der of her 19-year-old class mate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, and sentenced to death. In Sep tember this year, there was an attempt to carry out the sen tence. She was administered a lethal dose of pentobarbital a barbiturate that slows down the brain and nervous system and is fatal in high doses. This and midazolam form the sin gle dose protocol for execution by lethal injection. There is a three-drug protocol, which has largely fallen into disuse because pharmaceutical com panies refuse to produce the required drugs on the grounds that they function to save lives, not take life. Tennessee, where Christa Pikes execution was attem...