Indian-Origin Man, Wrongfully Jailed For 43 Years, Faces Deportation From US

An Indian-origin man, who spent over 40 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, is now set to be deported from the United States to a country he barely knows.

Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, 64, was released from a Pennsylvania prison on October 3 after his wrongful conviction was overturned, only to be immediately detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a decades-old deportation order to India, as per local media.

Vedam, a permanent US resident who came to the US from India as a nine-month-old baby, was convicted of the 1980 killing of 19-year-old Thomas Kinser in Pennsylvania. Kinser's body was found in a sinkhole, and Vedam, his former high school classmate, was accused of being the last person seen with him. He was sentenced to life without parole in 1983 and reconvicted in 1988.

In 2022, the Pennsylvania Innocence Project discovered previously undisclosed evidence, including an FBI report and notes suggesting the bullet wound in Kinser's skull could not have been caused by the alleged weapon.

In August 2025, a judge ruled that the suppression of evidence violated Vedam's due process rights. "Had that evidence been available at the time, there would have been a reasonable probability that the jury's judgment would have been affected," Grine wrote. A month later, District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dismissed the murder charge.

ICE cited a "legacy deportation order" from the 1980s, connected to both the overturned murder case and a prior drug conviction when Vedam was 19 for intent to distribute LSD. "Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, individuals who have exhausted all avenues of immigration relief and possess standing removal orders are priorities for enforcement," ICE said, as per NBC News.

During his 43 years in prison, Vedam became a mentor and educator, designing literacy programs, raising funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and tutoring hundreds of inmates. He earned multiple degrees, including a master's with a 4.0 GPA. "Subu's true character is evidenced in the way he spent his 43 years of imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit," said his sister, Saraswathi Vedam, as per the Miami Herald.

His niece, Zoe Miller Vedam, said, "It's been a very long journey toward exonerating my uncle. He spent the last 44 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, and we've been fighting and supporting him this whole time." She added, "India, in many ways, is a completely different world to him... His whole family, his sister, his nieces, his grand-nieces, we're all US citizens, and we all live here."

Vedam's legal team has filed a motion to reopen the immigration case and requested a stay on deportation. The government has to respond by October 24.