PORTLAND — A federal judge has confirmed the possibility that Frank Gable was framed for the 1989 murder of Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke.

That is one of the takeaways from a nine-page opinion in the case released by Oregon US District Court Magistrate Judge John Acosta on Friday, May 12. Gable was convicted of the murder in Marion County Circuit Court in 1991. Acosta originally ruled Gable was innocent and did not receive a fair trial on April 18, 2019. The case came back to him after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept the Oregon Department of Justice’s appeal of his ruling on April 24.

The new opinion supports Acosta’s May 8 order dismissing the 1990 indictment of Gable “with prejudice” and prohibiting him from ever being re-indicted and retried for this murder. The opinion also orders the state of Oregon to completely expunge any record of the conviction. It also confirms that Gable — who had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole but released on supervision during the appeal process — is now unconditionally released.

But the opinion goes much farther than that. Citing new evidence presented to him by Gable’s federal public defenders and upheld by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the opinion confirms the original case against Gable was based on coerced testimony, most of which has since been recanted by the witnesses against him.

“The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opened its opinion in this case by stating that ‘[t]he facts on appeal are extraordinary,’ and explained, ‘[s]ince trial, nearly all the witnesses who directly implicated Gable have recanted. Many explain they intended to frame Gable after hearing he was a police informant. They attribute their false testimony to significant investigative misconduct, which the State — remarkably — does not dispute,’” Acosta wrote.

“This finding calls into serious question the validity of the underlying indictment, which was based upon recanted testimony of the State’s material witnesses — testimony that was incentivized by interrogation methods the 9th Circuit explicitly recognized as undisputedly ‘coercive,’ ‘abusive,’ and ‘frightening,’” he continued.

The Marion County District Attorney’s Office and Oregon Department of Justice did not promptly respond to a request for comment, including whether the case would now be reopened and reinvestigated.

The opinion listed several other reasons why Gable cannot be retried, including the fact that he would be “irredeemably prejudiced.” Even if he were to be somehow re-convicted,” Acosta wrote that Gable has already served the maximum sentence he could be sentenced to under current state law, 30 years.

In his 2019 ruling, Acosta said the Marion County district attorney must either give Gable a new trial or drop the charges against him within 90 days. That deadline was extended during a portion of the appeals process. During a May 1 status conference, Oregon Solicitor General Benjamin Gutman told Acosta he did not have the authority to impose such a deadline. Acosta refuted that argument in his new opinion.

“When the state elected not to retry Gable within the 90-day limit, Gable’s release became permanent and unconditional,” he wrote.

The Francke murder was perhaps the most high-profile killing in Oregon history. He was stabbed in the heart and bled to death outside his Salem office in the Department of Corrections headquarters known as the Dome Building on Jan. 17, 1989.

The case took many twists and turns over the years, beginning with the emergence of conspiracy theories that Franke was killed because he was investigating corruption in his department.

No suspect was charged with the crime until Gable, 15 months after the killing. His conviction was upheld by the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court, before being overturned by the two federal courts that considered it.

Gable has always maintained his innocence. Since he was released during the appeal process, Gable has been living with his wife, Rain, in Kansas. He has held several jobs and has not been in any trouble with the law.