Michael Francke

Michael Francke

James Michael Francke (2 October 1946 – 17 January 1989) was the Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, the governmental bureau which manages prisons, inmates and parolees in the state of Oregon. He was appointed by then-governor Neil Goldschmidt to oversee Goldschmidt's plan to double the state's inmate capacity. 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.

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. In the film, Francke was portrayed by Ernie Garrett.

The Association of State Correctional Administrators annually awards the Michael Francke Award to the top corrections administrator in the United States.