Imagine spending 43 years behind bars, only for your murder conviction to be overturned. A chance for freedom, right? For Subramanyam Vedam, 64, that freedom was agonizingly brief. Instead of returning home to his family last October, he was immediately swept into federal immigration custody, now fighting deportation.
Vedam’s journey is a profound tale of injustice. He was convicted in the 1980 death of a college friend, a conviction a Pennsylvania judge finally threw out last August. The reason? New ballistics evidence that prosecutors had withheld for decades. A clear victory, a chance to rebuild a life.
But Vedam’s nightmare wasn’t over. He’s now battling a 1999 deportation order, stemming from a minor 1980s drug charge – delivery of LSD. His lawyer argues that without the wrongful murder conviction, he would likely have become a U.S. citizen years ago, as immigration laws then allowed. The drug offense was “not importing tons of cocaine,” his lawyer emphasized, highlighting that offenses occurred over 40 years ago and he poses no danger.
Despite support from local prosecutors and even the mayor of State College (where Vedam’s late father was a renowned Penn State professor), an Immigration Judge has denied him bail, citing the felony drug conviction and deeming him a safety risk.
Vedam, who came to the U.S. from India as a 9-month-old, has endured immense suffering. His sister, Saraswathi, calls him “resilient,” and the family remains hopeful. As he awaits further hearings from an ICE facility, his extraordinary fight for true freedom, after decades of wrongful incarceration, continues.
