Global Courant 2023-05-09 08:37:40
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man who spent nearly three decades in prison for the 1989 murder of the Oregon prison warden has been granted full liberty.
U.S. Judge John V. Acosta on Monday ordered Marion County’s murder charges against Frank Gable to be dropped and barred the state from trying him again in the death of Oregon prison chief Michael Francke, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
“The state or any court is “EXCLUDED from re-arresting, re-incriminating or re-trialling the petitioner for the murder of Michael Francke,” Acosta wrote in a brief order. A full opinion is expected at a later date.
Gable’s sister Francine Sinnett told the paper she learned of her brother’s decision: “He just called and said it’s over.”
‘He’s ecstatic. I am ecstatic. It’s such a burden on your soul,” she said.
Gable left prison in 2019 after a judge found the court erred in excluding evidence of third party guilt. The ruling came after multiple witnesses recanted and defense attorneys cited a report of improper questioning and flawed polygraphs used to question witnesses and shape their statements to police.
Acosta then ordered Gable to be released or tried again within 90 days. The judge sometimes stopped the 90-day clock because the state unsuccessfully appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Gable has remained under federal supervision.
In 1991, Gable was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder of 42-year-old Francke.
Francke’s brothers, Pat and Kevin Francke, have been staunch defenders of Gable and believe he was wrongly convicted.
Kevin Francke, Michael Francke’s youngest brother, told the newspaper in a statement: “We are extremely happy that Frank and his wife, Rain, will no longer be paralyzed with fear by every unexpected phone call or knock on the door, and they can are about a normal existence.”
Roy Kaufmann, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Justice, said the department respects the court’s ruling.
John Crouse, a Salem man then on parole for robbery, repeatedly said he killed Francke, telling law enforcement, relatives, and a girlfriend that he stabbed Francke when Francke caught Crouse breaking into his car. Crouse is no longer alive.
Acosta found that the exclusion of Crouse’s confessions at Gable’s trial was wrong and violated Gable’s rights to due process. The 9th Circuit upheld Acosta’s ruling, calling the facts of the appeal extraordinary.
