Two Lethal Injections, and Christa Pike Is in a Tennessee Hospital

Christa Pike, a convicted killer, is in hospital in Tennessee after surviving two lethal injections, the BBC reports, in a case the broadcaster says has raised many questions. In a country that still carries out executions, that is not a small thing to leave hanging: a procedure designed as final did not finish the job, and it did so in front of witnesses, officials and, eventually, a court of public opinion. The word the report uses is the word that sticks. We say patients survive; we say the condemned are executed. Pike is in a hospital bed, and the case is now a set of questions rather than a conclusion.