After spending 43 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Indian-origin man Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam was ordered to be released from prison earlier this month. But before he could even step outside, he was taken into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody — and now faces deportation to India. A country he last saw as a baby.The 64-year-old grew up in Pennsylvania and has lived in the US since he was nine months old. He was exonerated of all charges on 2 October. However, ICE cited a decades-old deportation order from 1988 to justify his detention and deportation. The order was based on the same murder conviction and a separate drug-related offence.His family had spent decades hoping for his freedom, but is now left devastated. “All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life,” his niece Zoë Miller-Vedam told USA Today.
‘He doesn’t speak Hindi’
Vedam’s family says he has no real ties to India and would be lost if sent there. “He doesn’t speak Hindi,” his niece said. “We tease him that he has more of a Philadelphia accent than anything else, because that’s the only way he’s ever spoken.”She explained that Vedam was born in India while his parents were visiting for a family funeral, but returned to the US as an infant. He grew up entirely in Pennsylvania. “There are connections, but they’re only distant connections,” she said. “Any memories he has of India are in a distant past, and an India that doesn’t exist anymore.”His parents and grandparents have since died, and he has no close relatives left in India. His family believes deportation would force him to live in a place where he knows no one and cannot communicate.“He’s unfamiliar with modern technology, he wouldn’t know how to find housing or a job,” Miller-Vedam said. “In the US, he’d have family and a support system to help him rebuild his life.”
43 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit
Vedam was convicted of murder in 1983 for the killing of his former classmate and roommate, 19-year-old Tom Kinser, who had gone missing in late 1980 in State College, Pennsylvania. His body was later found with a gunshot wound to the head.Authorities claimed Vedam was the last person seen with Kinser, but there were no witnesses, physical evidence or signs of hostility between the two. Vedam maintained his innocence but was denied bail as a “foreigner likely to flee”, and his passport and green card were confiscated.In 1983, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. His appeals continued for decades until 2021, when new evidence came to light. On October 2, 2025, all charges against him were dropped, confirming Vedam’s wrongful conviction.Ava Benach, Vedam’s lawyer, said her client was the longest-incarcerated prisoner in Pennsylvania to be exonerated. “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,” she said. “He was still a lawful permanent resident, and his application for citizenship had been accepted, when he was arrested in 1982.”Benach added that Vedam “forfeited four decades of his life to a prison sentence for a murder he didn’t commit” and worked to educate and rehabilitate other inmates during his time behind bars. Go to Source
