Was Frank Gable framed for killing Oregon Correction Director Michael Francke?

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — A federal judge has confirmed the possibility that Frank Gable was framed for the 1989 murder of Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke.

That is one of the takeaways from a nine-page opinion in the case released by Oregon US District Court Magistrate Judge John Acosta on Friday, May 12. Gable was convicted of the murder in the Marion County Circuit Court in 1991. Acosta originally ruled Gable was innocent and did not receive a fair trial on April 18, 2019. The case came back to him after the US Supreme Court declined to accept the Oregon Department of Justice’s appeal of his ruling on April 24.

The new opinion supports Acosta’s May 8 order dismissing the 1990 indictment of Gable “with prejudice” and prohibiting him from ever being re-indicted and re-tried for murder. The opinion also orders the State of Oregon to completely expunge any record of the conviction. It also confirms that Gable — who had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole but released on supervision during the appeal process — is now unconditionally released.

But the opinion goes much farther than that. Citing new evidence presented to him by Gable’s federal public defenders and upheld by a three-judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the opinion confirms the original case against Gable was based on coerced testimony, most of which has since been recanted by the witnesses against him.

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“The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opened its opinion in this case by stating that ‘[t]he facts on appeal are extraordinary,’ and explained, ‘[s]ince trial, nearly all the witnesses who directly implicated Gable have recanted. Many explain they intended to frame Gable after hearing he was a police informant. They attribute their false testimony to significant investigative misconduct, which the State — remarkably — does not dispute,’” Acosta wrote.

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