Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, an Indian-origin man from Pennsylvania, was released from prison after spending 43 years behind bars, only to be immediately taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over a decades-old deportation order. Vedam’s family has launched a major protest demanding his release. The 64-year-old, who was arrested as an infant-immigrant in 1982, had spent nearly his entire adult life in prison for a murder he insists he did not commit. He was accused of killing his friend Thomas Kinser.
Vedam was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to life without parole, but he consistently maintained his innocence. New evidence in 2022 showed that the bullet wound in Kinser’s skull was too small to match the previously identified weapon, paving the way for his exoneration. In August 2025, a Centre County judge overturned the conviction after prosecutors were found to have withheld a critical FBI report. District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dismissed all charges, citing the “passage of time,” missing witnesses, and Vedam’s decades-long imprisonment.
Academic Achievements Behind Bars
During his incarceration, Vedam distinguished himself academically, creating literacy programs for fellow inmates and earning three degrees with magna cum laude honors, including an MBA with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He became the first inmate in over 150 years in Pennsylvania to earn a graduate degree while in prison.
Upon his release, ICE immediately detained Vedam, citing a deportation order from the 1980s linked to a drug conviction committed as a teenager. The agency described him as a “career criminal” with a long rap sheet. Vedam’s lawyer, Ava Benach, strongly rejected this portrayal, stating the conviction occurred when he was a teenager and that deporting him to a country he barely knows “would represent another terrible wrong.”
Family Demands Justice
Vedam’s family expressed shock at ICE’s action. “Since that wrongful conviction has now been officially vacated and all charges against Subu have been dismissed, we have asked the immigration court to reopen the case and consider the fact that Subu has been exonerated,” they said. His niece Zoe Miller Vedam added, “India, in many ways, is a completely different world to him. He left India when he was nine months old… His whole family—all of his family relationships—are here and in Canada.”
The family has filed motions to reopen his immigration case and halt his deportation while proceedings are ongoing. Benach highlighted that, without the wrongful murder conviction, Vedam would likely have defended his status successfully decades ago. Zoe concluded, “After 43 years of having his life taken from him because of a wrongful conviction, to send him to the other side of the world, to a place he doesn’t know, away from everyone who loves him, would just compound that injustice.”