PHILADELPHIA.- After more than four decades in prison for a murder he did not commit, Subramanyam Vedam faces a new legal fight: avoiding his deportation USA.
The man, originally from India and resident in Pennsylvania since his childhood, he was convicted twice for the murder of his friend Thomas Kinser in 1980, despite the lack of witnesses or motives.
Last August, a judge overturned the conviction after the defense discovered new ballistic tests that prosecutors had never revealed.
The evidence indicated that The weapon that Vedam allegedly used did not correspond to the caliber of the projectile found in the victim.
As his sister prepared to pick him up on October 3, Vedam — 64 — was taken into federal custody for a 1999 deportation order.
Despite having arrived legally in the United States when he was just nine months old, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding him in a detention center in Pennsylvania.
“He was someone who suffered a deep injustice“said his immigration lawyer. Ava Beach.
“Those 43 years are not a blank sheet. He had a remarkable experience in prison”.
Subramanyam Vedam: he spent 43 years in prison as an innocent man and now faces deportation
Although his release seemed imminent, Vedam remains detainednow not because of a crime that he did not commit, but because of an immigration law that could definitively separate him from the country where he has lived his entire life.
The case of Subramanyam Vedam has been flagged for multiple irregularities. At his 1988 trial, he faced questions that experts said sought highlight your foreign origin before an all-white jury.
“Mr. Vedam, where were you born?, How often did you return to India?, Have you ever been interested in meditation?“were some of the questions asked by the district attorney, Ray Gricar.
The law professor Gopal Balachandranwho pushed for the reversal of the case, believes that the interrogation was an attempt to culturally isolate him from the jury.
Balachandran found in 2023 the FBI ballistics report which was never presented in the previous trials and which was key to annulling the sentence.
During his time in prison, Vedam obtained several academic degreestutored hundreds of companions and in almost half a century committed only one minor infraction, related to rice brought from abroad.
His release seemed imminent until ICE intervened.
The agency maintains that the conviction for drug crimes that he received in the 1980s—for possession with intent to distribute LSD— makes you susceptible to deportation.
Lawyers in the case argue that the years of wrongful imprisonment should make up for any wrongdoing committed decades ago.
However, the US government, in documents presented last Friday, opposes reopening the immigration process.
“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States“said a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security in a statement about the case.
An Indian origin man named Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam spent 43 years in a Pennsylvania prison in the USA for a murder he did not commit. Vedam was exonerated and released in October 2025 after new evidence proved his innocence. pic.twitter.com/j5cgEUSkLl
— Cicada 🦋 (@NonintellectuaI) October 19, 2025
Released from prison and detained by ICE, what will happen now with the Vedam case?
The defense of Subramanyam Vedam He trusts that the immigration courts will recognize his innocence and his exemplary reintegration.
“Forty-three years of wrongful imprisonment more than makes up for possessing LSD when he was 20”said his lawyer Ava Beach.
HoweverICE argues that Vedam has not been “diligent” in defending his immigration status.
“You have not provided evidence or arguments to show that you have been active in pursuing your rights“wrote the official Katherine B. Frisch.
Despite the setback, her sister maintains hope.
“He, more than anyone, knows that sometimes things don’t make sense. You have to stay the course and keep hoping that truth, justice, compassion and kindness prevail”.
The Vedam family was one of the first of Indian origin to settle in the university area of “Happy Valley”, in Pennsylvania, in the 1950s.
“My father loved the university. My mother helped start the library”her sister recalled Saraswathi Vedamteacher at Canada.