An Indian-origin man, Subu Vedam, spent more than 43 years in a United States prison for a murder he did not commit.
In October 2025, his conviction was overturned and a 64-year-old Vedam finally walked out of jail.
He was immediately detained by ICE officers citing a deportation order from 1988.
An Indian-origin man, Subramanyam ‘Subu’ Vedam, spent more than 43 years in a United States prison for a murder he did not commit. In October 2025, his conviction was finally overturned by a Common Pleas court. On 3 October 2025, 64-year-old Vedam walked out of jail only to be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Even though a Pennsylvania court overturned his 1983 conviction, citing withheld evidence, immigration authorities immediately took him into custody on the basis of an old deportation order from the 1980s.
Vedam was convicted in 1983 for the murder of 19-year-old Thomas Kinser, whose body was found in a sinkhole in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in 1980. The two had attended the same college and were occasional roommates.
Prosecutors at the time alleged that Vedam had been the last person seen with Kinser. No weapon was ever recovered, and the case against him was built largely on circumstantial evidence, including inconclusive witness statements and assumptions about motive. Vedam, then 22, was sentenced to life in prison. Over the years he has rejected multiple plea bargains and consistently maintained his innocence.
The County District Attorney’s Office reopened the case in 2022, when his case was picked up by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, an NGO that works on overturning wrongful convictions. Vedam’s lawyers filed a petition seeking disclosure of suppressed records. A review uncovered that key evidence — including an FBI ballistics report — had not been suppressed during the original trial. The report directly contradicted the prosecution’s theory of how the shooting occurred.
In August 2025, a Centre County judge vacated Vedam’s conviction, ruling that the withheld evidence violated his right to a fair trial. On 2 October 2025, prosecutors formally dismissed all charges, acknowledging that the case could no longer be retried due to the passage of time and loss of reliable witnesses.
Vedam prepared to leave prison after 43 years on 3 October 2025, with his family waiting to greet him. But also waiting for him was a troop of ICE officers. They detained him based on a deportation order from 1988. The order stems from a drug-related conviction he received at the age of 19, when he pleaded guilty to possession of LSD with intent to distribute.
ICE described him as “a career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980” and “a convicted controlled substance trafficker.” Vedam’s lawyers have filed motions to reopen the immigration case and stay his deportation, arguing that his exoneration fundamentally changes his legal status.
“He has already lost four decades of his life to a wrongful conviction,” said Ava Benach, his attorney. “To now deport him based on a decades-old charge from his youth would be an act of cruelty.”
He is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, pending an immigration hearing that will determine whether he can remain in the United States. His lawyers have filed a motion to reopen his immigration proceedings, which had been stalled due to his conviction. ICE authorities have until 24 October 2025 to file a reply.
Vedam was born in India and brought to the U.S. when he was only nine months old. He has spent his entire life in America. His parents, who both passed away while he was imprisoned, regularly visited him for decades. His father, a former university professor, died in 2009, followed by his mother in 2016.
During his time in prison, Vedam earned multiple degrees — including an MBA with a perfect GPA — and organised literacy and education programs for fellow inmates. He also led fundraising efforts for community programs. Vedam’s sister, Saraswathi Vedam, said, “Subu’s true character is evidenced in the way he spent his 43 years of imprisonment for a crime he didn’t commit.”
His family says deportation would be devastating, as he has no remaining ties to India and does not speak any Indian language.
“He left India when he was nine months old,” said his niece Zoë Miller-Vedam. “He hasn’t been back in over 44 years.” She said that his entire family lived in the US and anyone he might have known in India would have passed away by now. “To send him to India at 64, on his own and away from his family and community, would be just extending the harm of his wrongful incarceration,” she said.
She talked of the toll the unjust incarceration had taken on him: “He’s never seen a modern film, he’s never been on the internet, he doesn’t know technology.”
For Vedam, the legal victory has yet to bring real freedom. After decades spent behind bars for a crime he did not commit, he now faces the possibility of being deported to a country he barely remembers. Zoë says his deportation would only compound the earlier injustice. She hopes that one day “he’ll be able to be home with his family.” [Rh/Eth/DS]
