A federal judge has ruled that it is possible that Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke was murdered in 1989 but that Frank Gable was falsely accused of the crime.
Magistrate Judge John Acosta of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon issued his nine-page opinion in the case on Friday, May 12. In 1991, Gable was found guilty of mu*der by a circuit court in Marion County. On April 18, 2019, Acosta ruled in favor of Gable, declaring him innocent and saying his trial was unfair.
The Portland Tribune tweeted the following about the murder case of Michael Francke:
After the US Supreme Court rejected the Oregon Department of Justice’s appeal of his ruling on April 24, the case was returned to him. Acosta’s ruling from May 8 dismissing Gable’s 1990 indictment “with prejudice” and barring him from being re-indicted and re-tried for mu*der is upheld by the latest opinion.
The State of Oregon is also directed to erase all traces of the conviction. It further affirms that Gable, who had been freed on supervision while his appeal was pending but had been given a life sentence without the possibility of parole, is now unconditionally free.
However, this viewpoint extends much beyond that. 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, citing new evidence presented by Gable’s federal public defenders and upheld by a three-judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta dropped the murder indictment against Frank Gable in Marion County and barred the state from retrying him for the murder of Oregon’s prison superintendent, Michael Francke.
You can view NewsWatch 12’s tweet about this report below
Check out these links to find out what’s going on in Oregon right now:
- Angry Parents Slam Oregon Schools for Inappropriate S*x Education Lesson.
- Pacific Northwest to Experience Unprecedented Early Summer Heat Wave.
βThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opened its opinion in this case by stating that βthe facts on appeal are extraordinary,β and explained, βsince the trial, nearly all the witnesses who directly implicated Gable have recanted. Many explained they intended to frame Gable after hearing he was a police informant. They attribute their false testimony to significant investigative misconduct, which the State β remarkably β does not dispute,ββ Acosta wrote.
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