Frank Gable, wrongfully convicted of killing OR Corrections Director in 1991, preparing to sue

Frank Gable and his wife Rain in Kansas where they have been living since his release. (Courtesy: Frank Gable)

by: Jim Redden

Posted: Nov 4, 2023 / 10:00 AM PDT

Updated: Nov 3, 2023 / 08:29 PM PDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Frank Gable, who was wrongly convicted of murdering Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke in 1991, is preparing to sue Marion County and the State of Oregon for violating his civil rights.

But, even if Gable wins a sizable judgement, he told the Portland Tribune that nothing can replace the 30 years that he served in prison before his conviction was overturned in federal court.

“I went into prison a young, cocky man and came out an old man with health problems,” Gable told the Portland Tribune in his first on-the-record interview since being released in 2019 while the Oregon Department of Justice appeal the federal ruling. “Nothing can give me those years back.”

Gable spoke while waiting to receive and review the final version of his upcoming suit being prepared by Lovey & Lovey, a Chicago law firm with a record of winning large judgements for those wrongfully convicted of crimes. Gable said they have not yet decided how much money to seek, but has been told that $1 million for every year in prison is not out of the question.

Gable said that after he was first convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, he fantasized that his sentence would be quickly overturned on appeal and that he would quickly be compensated. But as the years drug by and the state courts upheld his conviction, Gable lost hope. He had to exhaust all of his state appeals before federal public defenders in Portland took and reinvestigated his case, eventually discovering the alibi Gable had forgotten that helped set him free.