Man convicted of killing Oregon corrections head ordered released

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A federal judge has ruled that a man convicted in the 1989 killing of the Oregon Department of Corrections director should be released from prison.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that unless prosecutors plan to retry Frank Gable, U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta said in a Thursday order that he should be released from custody within 90 days.

Michael Francke was found dead on Oregon State Hospital grounds in Salem. Gable was indicted in the killing by a Marion County grand jury.

Gable’s trial ended in murder convictions. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1991.

In the order, Acosta said he found the trial court made an error in excluding evidence of third-party guilt and that Gable’s attorneys provided Gable with “ineffective assistance in failing to assert Gable’s federal due process rights in the face of the trial court’s error.”