INTRODUCTION

The journey of Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl is indeed odd and tragic. Wrongful convictions in the United States criminal justice system have become commonplace and sadly, it’s occurred so frequently that the public has become accustomed to it. The most common reason for wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification. In Obadyah’s case this is clearly not an issue because every eye witness described a white male with long stringy hair as the real killer. However, Obadyah is a black man with short hair and absolutely bears no resemblance to the white male assailant. 

Obadyah has spent 33 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Twenty of those years were spent on death row (solitary confinement) before an appeals court vacated one of his two convictions and two death sentences in 2003 and 2008 respectively. However, he remains wrongfully incarcerated in Indiana with an inhumane sentence of 120 years. 

Let’s raze the bars of injustice.

CASE FACTS

From October 30, 1990 to December 18, 1990, a series of shotgun shootings took place throughout Northwestern Indiana. From all eyewitness accounts the assailant was a white male with long stringy hair. On January 28, 1991, Antwion McGee and Obadyah were arrested for a hand gun shooting that occurred at Southlake Mall in Crown Point Indiana. Prior to the arrest, Obadyah and Antwoin eluded police. Antwion returned to Obadyah’s apartment and placed a shotgun in the closet of Obadyah’s bedroom, informed Obadyah’s mother that he was in trouble, and went back out to find Obadyah.

McGee was apprehended. He then told authorities that he “could point them to a bigger fish.” He told them that Obadyah was the person responsible for the recent shotgun shootings. He led them to Obadyah’s apartment where the authorities subsequently located a shotgun in a closet.

In the early morning of January 28, 1991, Obadyah was arrested. After 33 hours of intense interrogation, threats, sleep deprivation, and being denied access to legal representation, Obadyah was coerced into falsely taking responsibility for the shootings. Obadyah’s first two trials ended in acquittals. This was due, in part, to a composite sketch of the white assailant eye witnesses described, no physical evidence linking Obadyah to the shootings, and the statements being contrary to the evidence.

Obadyah’s third and fourth trials ended in convictions; one conviction by an all white jury determined to convict him because of the prior acquittals and probably feeling that justice wasn’t done. Pre-trial articles in the Porter County newspaper in 1991 and early 1992 illustrates the hostility preceding this trial. In July of 2003, this conviction was reversed for prosecutorial misconduct, and an incomplete trial record.

Obadyah stands convicted for a shooting at a tailor shop in Gary Indiana. Although no eye witness placed Obadyah at the scene he was convicted after three days of deliberation. The striking difference between this conviction and the two acquittals is the composite sketch of the white suspect. Due to misrepresentations by the prosecution, the Judge ruled the composite sketch inadmissible. The jury never got to hear about or see the eye witness description of the suspect truly responsible for these shootings. On August 28, 2008, the death sentence in this case was overturned. However, the trial judge sentenced Obadyah to a total of 120 years.

A close review of the case shows an eye witness who identifies another man as the assailant and another witness favorable to Obadyah that the jury never got to hear during this trial. Moreover, Obadyah has passed a sophisticated polygraph test where he denied any involvement in the shootings for which he is still languishing in prison.

SUPPORT THIS PETITION

A Columbia University study in the Spring of 2000, close to 20 years ago, found that two-thirds of all death sentences in the 25 previous years were reversed.

A University of Michigan study in 2022 found 233 wrongful conviction exonerations in just 26 states. It also revealed that the average time between false convictions and exoneration is between 14 and 16 years. Just these statistics alone indicate a serious issue within the criminal justice system concerning people being convicted and/or sentenced to death having been innocent.

If this number of people are exonerated annually, imagine how many still remain falsely and unjustly incarcerated. In any civilized society this should not be so easily glanced over. People’s lives, families, and the mental wellness of too many others are being destroyed from spending decades in a cage; while repeatedly being humiliated and dehumanized in the name of justice. 

For over 30 years, Obadyah has been the victim of such treatment. Due to corruption, cover-ups, lies and the overriding need for judicial efficiency. Obadyah and many others have fallen through the cracks of a system, which accepts false convictions as an inevitable reality. It’s merely the collateral damage of overzealous efforts to bring closure to this case. 

In spite of two acquittals, eye witness accounts of a white suspect, a composite sketch of the assailant composed by an eye witness, a reversal of one of the two convictions, passing a public polygraph test, an admission by the Indiana’s attorney general that the statements and a single conviction evidence is dubious at best, this case remains unscrutinized—until now! 

It’s past time to shine a glaring light on the terrible miscarriage of justice that Obadyah and his family have endured for the last three decades. The vast number of exonerations over the last 30 years should alarm all of us and prompt our conscience to want the truth no matter how uncomfortable or tedious the process may be. Obadyah’s story must be examined in full and his name must be highlighted amongst the wrongfully convicted, and evermore, one of the exonerated.

RAZE THE BARS OF INJUSTICE 

Please join the fight to expose this grave injustice and exonerate Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl. This petition and your signatures goes towards prompting Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and Lake County prosecutor Bernard Carter to re-open this case, investigate it without prejudice  in an effort to reveal the truth and bring justice to Obadyah and to the family of the victims.

Truth Never Dies,

Leon Benson