On: Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike's failed execution

They tried twice and missed. The state of Tennessee, which never misses a chance to be certain about anything, could not manage to kill one woman with two attempts and all its machinery.

Now the prison chief resigns, as though the trouble were one man’s aim and not the whole enterprise. Her lawyers say it goes beyond any single person - the first honest sentence out of that building in years. The state will no doubt appoint another chief, order another dose, and call the third time competence.

I have known men who could not take a hint after two refusals. I never expected to admire the hint. Somewhere a woman lies in critical condition, alive by bureaucratic accident, and they are already drafting the apology to the needle.