"Exonerated after 43 years, now deportation over 1983 drug plea"

Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, a man who spent 43 years in a Pennsylvania prison for a murder conviction later overturned, now faces deportation after a 1999 order resurfaced following his release in August 2025. The 64-year-old, who immigrated to the U.S. from India as an infant, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on October 3, 2025, days after a judge dismissed his murder conviction due to newly uncovered ballistics evidence, NBC News reported. His case has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's broader immigration enforcement agenda, with advocates arguing his decades of wrongful imprisonment should outweigh a past drug conviction, ABC News reported.

Vedam's legal troubles began in 1980, when he was charged with murdering his friend Thomas Kinser, a fellow Penn State student. Despite a lack of witnesses or motive, Vedam was convicted twice, most recently in 1988, NBC News reported. His lawyers later discovered an FBI report indicating the fatal bullet wound was inconsistent with the .25-caliber gun he had purchased, a detail prosecutors had concealed, ABC News reported. After a 2023 review, Centre County Judge David Stockinger vacated the conviction, and prosecutors declined to retry the case, NBC News reported.

However, Vedam's relief was short-lived. Federal immigration authorities cited a 1999 order stemming from a drug conviction (he pleaded no contest to selling LSD in 1983) to justify his detention, NBC News reported. Immigration lawyer Ava Benach, who is representing Vedam, argues that his "profound injustice" over four decades should qualify him for a waiver under immigration law. "Forty-three years of wrongful imprisonment more than makes up for the possession with intent to distribute LSD when he was 20 years old," she said, ABC News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security has countered that Vedam failed to pursue his immigration rights promptly. In a brief, assistant chief counsel Katherine Frisch stated, "He has provided no evidence nor argument to show he has been diligent in pursuing his rights as it pertains to his immigration status," NBC News reported. ICE officials have opposed reopening the case, asserting the "clock ran out years ago," ABC News reported.

Vedam's supporters highlight his transformation during incarceration. He earned multiple degrees, tutored fellow inmates, and maintained a spotless record save for one minor infraction involving rice brought into prison, NBC News reported. His sister, Saraswathi Vedam, a midwifery professor in Vancouver, described her brother as "patient" despite the setbacks. "He, more than anybody else, knows that sometimes things don't make sense. You have to just stay the course and keep hoping that truth and justice and compassion and kindness will win," she said, ABC News reported.

The case underscores tensions in U.S. immigration policy, particularly under the Trump administration's emphasis on deportation enforcement. While Vedam's lawyers seek a hearing before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the outcome remains uncertain. For now, he remains at an ICE detention facility in central Pennsylvania, awaiting a decision that could determine his future, NBC News reported.