Immigration officials have blocked the deportation of 64-year-old Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam. Currently detained at a holding centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, the Indian-origin Pennsylvania man spent 43 years in prison before his murder conviction was recently overturned. His sister, Saraswathi Vedam, divulged that Subu has been living in the US since he was 9-months-old, according to the Associated Press.
On Thursday (US time), an immigration judge stayed his removal from the US until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals formally determines whether his case will be reviewed. That very day, Vedam’s lawyers also obtained a stay in US district court in Pennsylvania.
Indian-origin man wrongfully imprisoned for murder?
Previously convicted of his former roommate’s murder, Subu Vedam was sentenced to life in prison in 1983. A year later, a drug offence resulted in him receiving an additional sentence of two-and-a-half to five years. However, the Indian-origin man in the US has long maintained his innocence in the murder case. Ultimately, his conviction for the same was overturned earlier this year.
Nonetheless, he got only a brief window of relief. Upon being released from state prison on October 3, he was immediately taken into immigration custody. Although his murder case was reversed, the Department of Homeland Security and other authorities have asserted that his drug conviction still stands.
“Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE’s enforcement of the federal immigration law,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement quoted by the AP.
On top of that, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is counting on deporting the Pennsylvania man over charges of LSD delivery. On the contrary, his family and lawyers contend that four decades of wrongful imprisonment should override the drug case ruling. During his time in prison, Vedam is said to have earned degrees and tutored other prisoners as well.
Subramanyam Vedam’s immigration status in US
According to his lawyer, the Indian-origin, who brough to the country by his parents as an infant, was a legal permanent resident of the US. His citizenship application had accepted before he was arrested in 1982.
Vedam’s arrest followed the murder of his ex-roommate and then-19-year-old college student Tom Kinser in the 1980s. As per the BBC, Vedam asked Kinser for a ride on the day he disappeared. Nine months after he went missing, his body was found in a wooded area with a bullet wound in his skull.
As Subu Vedam was charged with the murder, he was denied bail. Authorities even went on to seize his passport and green card and branded him a “foreigner likely to flee.” In addition to the man standing up for himself all these years, his family also pushed hard that no physical evidence linked him to Kinser’s death.
A website called ‘Free Subu’ has long been dedicated to the case, demanding justice for the Indian-origin man wrongfully dragged into the decades-old murder case.