James Michael Francke | |
|---|---|
 Michael Francke | |
| Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections | |
| In office May 1987 – January 17, 1989 | |
| Governor | Neil Goldschmidt |
| Director of the New Mexico Corrections Department | |
| In office 1983 – May 1987 | |
| Succeeded by | Lane McCotter |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 2, 1946 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | January 17, 1989 (aged 42) Salem, Oregon, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Homicide by stabbing[1] |
| Alma mater | New Mexico Highlands University (BA) University of Virginia (JD) |
| Occupation | Corrections Director |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service |  United States Navy |
James Michael Francke (/ˈfræŋki/; October 2, 1946 – January 17, 1989) was an American judge from New Mexico and director of the state's Corrections Department, the governmental bureau which manages prisons, inmates, and parolees. He was later appointed by then-Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt to oversee a plan to double the state's inmate capacity as director of Oregon's Department of Corrections. On January 18, 1989, his body was discovered outside the department's office building in Salem; an autopsy determined he had been murdered the night before. A local petty criminal was eventually tried and convicted for the crime, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, the convicted killer maintains his innocence, and several conspiracy theories have been advocated, claiming that the killing was a murder for hire conducted by corrupt state prison officials threatened by an investigation Francke was conducting into prison mismanagement. In 2019, the man convicted for the murder of Francke was released from prison after his murder conviction was thrown out by a federal magistrate in Portland, who ruled he did not receive a fair trial; four years later, he was given a full release when his indictment by the county was dismissed with prejudice and his murder conviction was expunged from the record.
A 1995 film Without Evidence, written by Gil Dennis and Phil Stanford, an Oregon columnist who has investigated the case extensively, was based on the Francke murder and subsequent investigations by Kevin Francke, Michael's brother.[2]
The Association of State Correctional Administrators annually awards the Michael Francke Award to the top corrections administrator in the United States.[3]
- ^ "Defense seeks delay in Francke case". The Eugene Register-Guard. Eugene, Oregon. October 6, 1990. p. 5B – via Google News.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
WW-10-2007was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA)". allbusiness.com. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
