In a quiet Pennsylvania courtroom in August 2025, a landmark decision shook the local justice system: 64‑year‑old Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam’s life sentence for murder was officially vacated. After 43 years of incarceration for a crime he insisted he didn’t commit, he stepped out into freedom—only to face something equally startling. Waiting for him at the prison gates were agents from ICE, who moved swiftly to detain him. The man who had just been proclaimed innocent now confronted a new reality: deportation.

🗓 1980 – The Crime

In December of 1980, 19‑year‑old Thomas Kinser vanished in Centre County, Pennsylvania. His car was returned—but he was gone. Nine months later, Kinser’s remains—with a bullet hole in the skull—were discovered in a sinkhole in the woods. (exonerationregistry.org)
Subu, then 19, had been one of the last people seen with Kinser. Police focused on him: a handgun had been purchased in his name about the time of the disappearance. (exonerationregistry.org)

🏛 1983 & 1988 – Trials and Convictions

Vedam was convicted of first‑degree murder in February 1983 and again in February 1988, receiving life without parole. (exonerationregistry.org)
He was also convicted in his teens on drug‑related charges (LSD distribution) and received additional sentences. (Inquirer.com)

🔍 Decades of Appeals

For over 40 years, Vedam and his attorneys fought for relief. Multiple petitions for post‑conviction relief were filed—but without success, until recently. (exonerationregistry.org)

⚠️ 2023–2025 – Breakthrough

In 2023, support from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and the law clinic at Penn State helped uncover prosecutorial misconduct: key FBI reports and forensic measurement data had been withheld—that evidence might have undermined the state’s case. (exonerationregistry.org)
In August 2025, a judge ruled his conviction must be vacated because prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory evidence. The district attorney announced on October 2 that they would not appeal the decision. (WPSU)

🎉 October 3 2025 – Freedom Then Detention

On October 3, Vedam was released from Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, after 43 years. But his freedom was short‑lived: almost immediately, ICE detained him under a removal order from 1988 tied to his 1980s drug case. (WPSU)

ICE described him as a “career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980.” (Inquirer.com)
His attorneys and family challenge that label, pointing out the drug conviction occurred when he was a teenager and that he has lived almost his entire life in the U.S. (Financial Express)

Here’s where the story takes its most startling turn: After enduring decades of wrongful imprisonment, Vedam’s exoneration would seem like the closing chapter of a tragic saga. Instead, it becomes the beginning of another battle—a war with immigration authorities over his very right to be in the country where he grew up.

Despite having arrived in the U.S. as an infant (just nine months old) and built his entire life in the U.S., Vedam now faces deportation to India—a place he barely remembers, where none of his closest family lives. (India Today)

His case starkly reveals a flaw: not all freedom is equal. A criminal‑justice victory did not automatically translate to immigration relief. One lead attorney called it: “When a man loses four decades of his life to a false conviction, deporting him now is the *ultimate miscarriage of justice.” (VisaVerge)

In the days following his release and detention, Vedam’s family became vocal advocates. His sister, Saraswathi, said:

“He was held wrongly and one would think that he conducted himself with such honor and purpose and integrity that that should mean something.” (StateCollege.com)
His niece, Zoë Miller‑Vedam, added:
“He left India when he was nine months old…he hasn’t been there for over 44 years…He has no connection.” (India Today)
The district attorney’s office emphasized that a retrial was impractical—witnesses dead, evidence gone. But that doesn’t soften the blow of what Vedam lost: 43 years of his life, relationships, time, freedom. He earned multiple degrees behind bars—including an MBA with a perfect 4.0 GPA—and built literacy programs for inmates, all while fighting to clear his name. (Financial Express)
Yet, as he stepped into what should have been a new chapter, the U.S. immigration system pulled him into yet another ordeal.

What lies ahead?
Legal teams have filed motions to reopen his immigration case, seeking stays of removal and humanitarian relief. But real-world outcomes are uncertain: Will he stay in the United States, or be deported to a land that feels foreign?
The injustice is two‑fold: first, the wrongful conviction; second, the threat of deportation after exoneration.
As advocates say, justice delayed is still justice—but justice demanded twice is a heavy burden on any human being.