left death penalty supporters including Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson frustrated and critical of the high court.

"I know the families of the victims are anxious for a clear-cut explanation from the majority as to how they came to this conclusion and how there appears to be no end to the court's review," Hutchinson said in a statement after the Wednesday ruling.

Since the last execution in 2005, the state Supreme Court has at least twice forced Arkansas to rewrite its death penalty law. One of those cases spared Don Davis, who again received a stay Monday night. The legal setbacks at one point prompted the state's previous attorney general, Dustin McDaniel, to declare Arkansas' death penalty system "broken."

But unlike the earlier decisions, this stay came from a court that hadthe trial court erred in its findings that the statements made by its representatives to the Pierre, South Dakota bank officials concerning Gustafson were "false" statements and the proximate cause of Gustafson's loss of his dealership.  GMAC also contends that the statements made were privileged under South Dakota law and that the measure of damages applied by the trial court was clearly erroneous.


3
GMAC financed the wholesale purchase and retail sales of new and used vehicles for Gustafson's General Motors car and truck dealership from 1962 until the sale of the business on September 22, 1969. 1968 was a poor year for the dealership and on a few occasions Gustafson got behind on his payments to GMAC for money due on cars sold by the dealership.  In