Who is Subu Vedam? Indian-origin man wrongfully jailed in US for 43 years walks free, faces immediate deportation

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, an Indian-origin man from Pennsylvania, walked out of prison after 43 years, only to be immediately detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over a decades-old deportation order.

His family has launched a major protest demanding the release of the 64-year-old, who spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Vedam, born in India and brought to the United States as an infant, was arrested in 1982 for the murder of his friend Thomas Kinser.

Convicted in 1983, he was sentenced to life without parole. Despite maintaining his innocence, all appeals were initially denied. New evidence in 2022 revealed that the bullet wound in Kinser’s skull was too small for the previously identified murder weapon, leading to his exoneration.

In August 2025, a Centre County judge overturned Vedam’s conviction after prosecutors were found to have withheld an FBI report critical to his defense. District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dismissed all charges, citing the “passage of time,” lost witnesses, and Vedam’s decades-long imprisonment. With this ruling, Vedam became the longest-serving wrongfully convicted person in Pennsylvania history.

While incarcerated, Vedam accomplished significant academic milestones, including creating literacy programs for inmates and completing three degrees with magna cum laude honors, including an MBA with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He was the first inmate in over 150 years in the state prison to earn a graduate degree while serving time.

Upon his release, ICE immediately detained Vedam, citing a legacy deportation order from the 1980s tied to a drug conviction he had committed as a teenager. The agency described him as a “career criminal” with a long rap sheet. Vedam’s lawyer, Ava Benach, disputed this characterization, stating the conviction occurred when he was a teenager and that deporting him to a country he barely knows “would represent another terrible wrong.”

Vedam’s family expressed shock and frustration at the turn of events. “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 pending. Benach emphasized that, without the wrongful murder conviction, Vedam likely would have successfully defended his status 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.”