Tennessee governor Bill Lee has so far resisted calls to commute Christa Pike’s sentence despite repeated pleas from her lawyer – with her botched execution attempt leaving the state in “uncharted territory” and creating questions that have “never needed to be asked.”

Deranged killer Pike, 50, is conscious and speaking in what her lawyers describe as a “medically unprecedented” recovery, a week after surviving two doses of lethal injection, but it remains unclear if she will be put to death again.

“We’re in uncharted territory,” Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center told USA Today Tuesday.

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“The US Supreme Court has not decided whether a second execution attempt would violate the consтιтution since 1947,” he said, alluding to the case of Willie Francis – a black teen who faced the electric chair after being convicted by an all-white jury.

“These are questions that have never needed to be asked before and no one knows the answers,” Maher said.