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Pennsylvania man wrongfully imprisoned for more than 40 years faces deportation after Ice arrest
Subramanyam Vedam, 64, was recently exonerated for murder after being sentenced to life in prison in 1983
www.theguardian.com
Exonerated after serving 40-plus years, he's now detained by ICE
Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam was released Oct. 3 from prison after serving over 40 years for a crime he didn't commit. ICE immediately took him into custody.
eu.usatoday.com
A Pennsylvania man who was recently exonerated after spending more than four decades behind bars has now been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and faces possible deportation to India.
Earlier this month Centre County’s District Attorney dismissed murder charges against 64-year-old Subramanyam 'Subu' Vedam. However shortly after his exoneration Vedam was detained by ICE based on a 1988 deportation order tied to his now-vacated convictions.
More than 40 years ago Vedam was convicted of the murder of Tom Kinser, a 19-year-old student who went missing from State College in 1980. Kinser’s body was discovered nine months later in a wooded area with a bullet wound in his skull.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Kinser and Vedam were former classmates and had lived together briefly as housemates. On the day Kinser disappeared Vedam asked for a ride. Kinser’s car was later found parked in its usual spot, though no one saw it being returned. Vedam, who was born in India and arrived in the US at nine months old, was charged with Kinser’s murder and had his passport and green card seized by authorities. He was also denied bail, as he was labelled a 'foreigner likely to flee'.
In 1983 Vedam was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. A year later he received an additional sentence of two-and-a-half to five years for a drug offence, as part of a plea deal that was to be served simultaneously with his life sentence.
While in prison Vedam maintained his innocence of the murder charges and continued to appeal against his conviction on circumstantial evidence. In 2021 new evidence in Kinser’s murder case surfaced, leading to Vedam’s exoneration earlier this month. The Centre County District Attorney also announced it will not seek a new trial against Vedam.
However, upon his exoneration Vedam was taken into custody by ICE. In a statement to the Miami Herald the agency accused Vedam of being a 'a career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980', adding that he is 'also a convicted controlled substance trafficker'.
Speaking to USA Today, Vedam’s lawyer Ava Benach
said: “Subu has lived in the US since he was a nine-month-old infant when he and his family arrived as lawful permanent residents of the United States … He was still a lawful permanent resident, and his application for citizenship had been accepted, when he was arrested in 1982.”
Highlighting Vedam as Pennsylvania’s longest-incarcerated prisoner to be exonerated, Benach emphasised that Vedam 'forfeited four decades of his life to a prison sentence for a murder he didn’t commit', and should therefore be given the opportunity to rebuild his life in the US, USA Today reported.
Vedam’s niece, Zoë Miller-Vedam
echoed similar sentiments to the outlet, saying: “All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life.”
Vedam is being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Centre,
an immigration detention facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, as his family awaits an update on his deportation case.
A motion to reopen Vedam's immigration case was filed 3rd October, the day ICE arrested him, and is now before the Board of Immigration Appeals, family spokesman Mike Truppa said.
