Gable's wrongful conviction suit continues to drag on in court

The most recent status conference in Frank Gable’s wrongful conviction case against the State of Oregon proved what critics told the Oregon Legislature earlier this year — the Oregon Department of Justice is making it all but impossible for those entitled to compensation to receive it.

Gable was wrongly convicted of the 1989 killing of Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke and served almost 30 years in prison before his conviction was reversed with prejudice in federal court. That means his record was expunged and he cannot be arrested or tried for killing Franke again in any court.

Gable filed a civil suit in Marion County Circuit Court in November 2023 seeking $2 million in compensation under a law passed by the 2022 Oregon Legislature. ODOJ opposed it, arguing Gable has not proven his innocence as required by the law. Advocates for the wrongfully convicted testified this has become a serious problem during a Feb. 29, 2024, informational hearing on the law before the Oregon Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The advocates said that ODOJ was contesting more than 90% of the filings, and also unnecessarily slowing down the proceedings.

During an Aug. 21 status conference before Marion County Circuit Court Judge Lindsay Patridge, ODOJ attorneys said they were having problems acquiring and digitizing an estimated 200,000 pages of records from Gable’s criminal case sought by his civil lawyers. They could not estimate how long it would take for them to review the records once they are digitized before deciding whether any of them need to be withheld.

Gable’s attorneys said they were also frustrated because ODOJ has apparently not yet obtained all potentially relevant documents from the Oregon State Police, which investigated the case. Partridge suggested the attorneys may have to seek the records directly from OSP, even though he admitted that might take longer.

Patridge previously held status hearings in the case on Feb. 27, April 22, and June 11 of this year. He was not able to make any decisions or set a trial date at those hearings, however, and still could not do so on Aug. 21 because of the many unresolved issues. Instead, Patridge scheduled another status hearing for Sept. 24.

In the meantime, Gable’s attorneys have filed suit in federal court seeking damages against 24 law enforcement officials he claims framed him for Francke’s murder with no evidence.

The suit, filed in the Eugene Division of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, includes many claims made in Gable’s successful federal appeal of his conviction.

The 28-page suit filed on July 11 alleges that law enforcement officials investigating Francke’s murder fabricated evidence against him and coerced associates to lie under oath about Gable’s involvement in the murder.

Francke was found stabbed to death near the North entrance of the corrections department headquarters in Salem on Jan. 17, 1989. The investigation was led by the Oregon State Police and Marion County DA’s Office.

Gable, a local methamphetamine dealer, was indicted for the murder in April 1990. He was convicted in June 1991 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After exhausting his appeals in state court, Gable appealed his case in the U.S. District Court for the State of Oregon, where he was represented by federal public defenders who reinvestigated his case. In lengthy court filings, they documented that virtually all of the witnesses against Gable had been coerced to give false testimony against him and had since recanted.

Gable’s lawyers were also able to document that he had been home the night of the murder, and that another petty Salem criminal had confessed to the murder before Gable was arrested. That man had information that had not been released to the public, but he was not charged with the crime. Gable’s lawyers were prevented from presenting the prior confession to the jury at his trial.

On April 18, 2019, U.S. District Magistrate Judge John Acosta ruled that Gable had not received a fair trial, was likely innocent, and should be released or given a new trial within 90 days. The Oregon Department of Justice appealed the ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Acosta’s ruling of perjured testimony.

“They attribute their false testimony to significant investigative misconduct, which the State—remarkably—does not dispute,” a three-judge panel wrote. “The state’s error was compounded by the trial court’s refusal to allow evidence that another man, John Crouse, had confessed multiple times to the murder. Crouse’s confession was particularly compelling because he gave details of the crime that were not publicly known.”

The department then appealed the rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to consider it, sending the case back to Acosta to be finalized. Acosta ordered Marion County to dismiss the indictment against Gable with prejudice, barring him from ever being tried for the killing again in May 2023.

Gable was released from prison during the federal appeals and lives in Kansas with his wife, Rain, where he has worked and stayed out of trouble.