PORTLAND, Oregon — A man wrongfully convicted of murder is now petitioning the state of Oregon to pay him for the time he spent behind bars.
On Tuesday, an attorney for Frank Gable filed a petition seeking just over $2 million from the state in wrongful conviction compensation for the nearly 30 years Gable served in prison. Around $100,000 of that sum accounts for the four years Gable spent on parole.
In 1991, Gable was wrongfully convicted of murdering Michael Francke, who was chief of Oregon’s prison system at the time. Francke was stabbed to death outside the Department of Corrections headquarters in Salem on January 17, 1989. Gable was a low-level drug dealer, but after his arrest, Francke's family believed that police had gotten the wrong guy.
“I knew from the evidence that we collected that there wasn't any way in God's earth that he had done it,” said Pat Francke, Michael Francke’s brother.
It would take 30 years, but in 2019, a federal judge agreed and ordered Gable to be released from prison. Part of the evidence was the fact that another man's multiple confessions to the killing were excluded from Gable's trial.
“There was never any physical evidence that linked (Gable) to the scene of the murder — the story that the state spun was just pure jackassery,” said Lauren Bright Pacheco, a podcast producer.
Bright Pacheco produced Murder in Oregon, a podcast that follows the still-unsolved murder of Michael Francke. It launched shortly before Gable's conviction was overturned. From Bright Pacheco’s perspective, Gable deserves much more than financial compensation. To her, the story doesn't end with money, it ends with justice.
“(Francke’s) murder was never properly investigated,” Bright Pacheco said. “People in positions of power knowingly put an innocent man in prison for three decades and the state of Oregon is still punching air.”
Francke said he stays in touch with Gable, who now lives in Kansas with his wife. He said Gable can’t work due to back injuries and other health issues he developed while in prison and also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Francke’s other brother, Kevin Francke, started a GoFundMe to help raise money to support Gable and his wife. Pat Francke said he’s hopeful about Gable’s petition to the state for compensation.
“I wish it could be a lot more,” Pat Francke said. “They took 30 years out of his life and subjected to him to all kinds of hell.”