Oregon Man Awarded $1.95 Million After Serving Nearly 30 Years in Prison for a Crime He Never Committed

Frank Gable (66) was awarded a $1,957,868 settlement after serving nearly 30 years in prison for a murder he never committed.

Yesterday (Tuesday), the Oregon Department of Justice agreed to pay the settlement to Gable for the wrongful incarceration of Gable for the fatal stabbing of the Oregon Corrections Director, Michael Francke, in 1989, outside his office in Salem.

The settlement follows a 2022 decision by a federal court judge to overturn the original sentence after finding that key evidence, proving Gable’s innocence, was kept from the jury. Two months later, after serving nearly 30 years, Gable was freed from the Lansing Prison in Kansas.

A Background Look

The Oregon Corrections Director bled out bled to death on the back porch of the Dome Building on the grounds of the State Hospital after he was stabbed three times in the heart on 17 January 1989.

The court case and trial of Frank Gable is said to be the longest and costliest homicide investigation in the history of Oregon, with costs estimated at more than $2 million.

There was no physical evidence tying Gable to the scene, and the murder weapon was never found.

Furthermore, the defense was precluded from submitting evidence of a murder confession by John Crouse.