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Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl

Obadyah was first incarcerated on 1/28/91. The charging information was that of seven intentional murders and five attempted murders. The prosecution then added three death penalty counts of robbery as the underlying felonies of each murder count; all the prosecution had to prove was the underlying robbery charges in order for Obadyah to receive the death penalty. After 4 separate trials had concluded, Obadyah was eventually sentenced to death in four of the murders. Subsequently, he was acquitted on three of the murders and all five of the attempted murders.

Police Brutality

After his arrest Officer Edward Davies interrogated Obadyah for several hours. When Officer Davies realized that Obadyah would not admit to committing the murder he attempted to coerce a statement with any means necessary. Officer Davies told Obadyah that he would “make it so I never saw my family again or the light of day if I did not tell them what they wanted to know.” The next day, Obadyah’s picture was on the news and he was said to have confessed to the string of shotgun murders. In fact, he had broken down in a standard terrorizing tactic. Fear and humiliation caused an innocent man to admit to a crime that he was not guilty of. An expert in the matter of the “confession” testified that it was indeed false!

Star Witness Gets Deal from Prosecutors

The arrest and interrogation of Obadyah was solely based upon the word of Antwon McGee. Mr. McGee had been arrested for robbery and a shooting at the Southlake Mall on January 27th, the same night as Obadyah was arrested. Claude Willis a columnist for the Gary Post Tribune observing the trials stated, “The only witness who testified at all four trials was an ex-con named Antwon McGee who said that Obadyah told him with others present that he killed all those people with a shotgun. However no one else heard this confession.” At trial Mr. McGee boasted about his deal with prosecutors. As a matter of fact, if Obadyah was not convicted, McGee had been told that he would face a sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison. As it turns out, Mr. McGee ended up serving only 2 years in a work release center!

White Suspected, Black Convicted

Prior to his arrest on January 28, 1991 the newspapers, the electronic media and the sketch composites provided by eyewitness accounts, all depicted a Caucasian male. Several eyewitnesses testified under oath that the killer was “a white male with a thin frame, thin lips and nose and stringy blond hair down to his neck”. At the time of his arrest, Obadyah was 5’9’’, 190 pounds, with short-cropped hair, brown eyes and sepia colored skin!

Recent Developments

As previously noted, Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl endured 4 separate trials. During the fourth trial, which began on December 18, 1990, Obadyah was found guilty. The judge sentenced him to death against the recommendation of the jury. Obviously, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ring v. Arizona, Obadyah’s death sentence in this case should be vacated immediately! In other recent developments, in 2000 Obadyah took and more importantly passed a polygraph test asserting his innocence in this case and in July 2003 Federal Judge Allan Sharp threw out the Porter County conviction. The conviction was reversed and a new trial was ordered!

ow can you help? Join the CEDP and Obadyah’s supporters in calling for justice. Please call (317) 313-6301 or e-mail statedeathrow@yahoo.com.