US Courts Halt Deportation of Indian-Origin Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 43 Years

Deportation of Indian-Origin Man, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 43 Years, Halted by US Courts

Vedam is a legal permanent resident of the United States.

Two US courts have issued orders preventing immigration officials from deporting Subramanyam Vedam, a 64-year-old man of Indian origin who spent four decades incarcerated before his murder conviction was overturned earlier this year. Vedam arrived in the United States legally from India when he was just nine months old. He grew up in State College, where his father was a professor at Penn State.

An immigration judge suspended his deportation on Thursday pending a decision by the Bureau of Immigration Appeals on whether to review his case, a process that could take several months. Vedam's legal team also secured a stay the same day in the US District Court in Pennsylvania but indicated the case might be paused given the immigration court's ruling.

Vedam, known to family members as "Subu," is a legal permanent resident of the United States. According to his attorney, his citizenship application had been accepted before his 1982 arrest for murder. Vedam was accused of killing his friend Thomas Kinser in 1980. He was the last person seen with Kinser and was convicted twice of the murder, despite the absence of witnesses or a clear motive.

In August, a judge overturned his conviction after Vedam's lawyers discovered new ballistics evidence that prosecutors had never disclosed.

He was scheduled to be released from a Pennsylvania prison on October 3 after waiting more than forty years to clear his name but was immediately transferred to immigration custody.

Vedam is currently held at a short-term detention facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, equipped with an airstrip for deportations. He was transferred there from central Pennsylvania last week, according to his family members who spoke to the Associated Press.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is pursuing Vedam's deportation based on his no-contest plea to LSD delivery charges filed when he was approximately 20 years old. His attorneys argue that the four decades he wrongfully spent in prison, during which he earned degrees and tutored fellow inmates, should outweigh the drug case.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated on Monday that the reversal of the murder case does not invalidate the drug conviction.

"Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE's enforcement of the federal immigration law," said Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, in an email.

Vedam's sister expressed on Monday that the family is relieved "that two different judges have agreed that Subu's deportation is unwarranted while his effort to reopen his immigration case is still pending."

"We're also hopeful that the Board of Immigration Appeals will ultimately agree that Subu's deportation would represent another untenable injustice," Saraswathi Vedam said, "inflicted on a man who not only endured 43 years in a maximum-security prison for a crime he didn't commit, but has also lived in the US since he was 9 months old."