Sitting in the driver's seat of his Chevy Cavalier, Chris Burns gripped a 20-ounce soda bottle and waited for his "shake and bake" methamphetamine to cook. Then came the explosion and fire. Burns and passenger Bobby Joe Joyner fled as blazing chemicals scorched their skin. When police caught up with the pair, they admitted to cooking meth and causing the explosion while sitting at a stop sign on a rural Fayette County road. But it was months before either faced criminal charges. To have charged the men en route to the hospital would have shifted the burden of paying for...