Wrongfully convicted Subu Vedam taken into ICE custody after release from prison
A State College man who spent more than four decades in prison for a murder conviction that has since been overturned was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Friday just as he stood on the doorstep of freedom.
Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, was taken into ICE custody about noon Friday upon his release from Huntingdon state prison because of a detainer issued in 1988, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson told the Centre Daily Times.
A message left Friday afternoon with the federal agency responsible for immigration enforcement was not immediately returned. It’s unclear if Vedam’s detention is tied up in bureaucracy or if it’s part of a larger effort, such as deportation.
Lead defense lawyer Gopal Balachandran said Vedam has resided in the U.S. since he entered the country as a 9-month-old in 1962. He was a legal permanent resident when he was arrested, Balachadran said. Vedam is a native of India.
He is detained in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near Philipsburg, Balachandran said. The Clearfield County ICE facility has been the subject of several recent protests, with potential abuses at the facility concerning immigration and civil rights activists since it opened in 2021.
Saraswathi Vedam, Subu’s sister, said in a statement Friday that the family is “disappointed” he was taken into ICE custody. She said the immigration matter is a remnant of his original murder conviction, which has since been overturned.
“Since that wrongful conviction has been officially vacated, and the charges against Subu have been dismissed, we have asked the immigration court to re-open the case and account for the fact that Subu has been exonerated,” she said Friday.
One day before, she said in a statement that the family couldn’t “wait to embrace Subu and welcome him home as a free man.” He has always maintained his innocence.
Harrisburg-area immigration attorney Andrew Quietmeyer — who is not connected with the case — said it’s possible Vedam is detained for weeks if he fights for his release.
“And if that is the case,” Quietmeyer said. “There are few options he can turn to for a quick release.”
What happened in the Subu Vedam case?
Centre County prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge Thursday against Vedam, who has spent about two-thirds of his life behind bars for the 1980 killing of Thomas Kinser.
His conviction on circumstantial evidence was overturned in August by Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine. He found previous county prosecutors violated Vedam’s due process rights and deprived him of a fair trial in 1988.
Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna could have chosen to retry Vedam, but it would have been difficult given key witnesses are dead, memories have faded and some physical evidence is no longer available.
He also said Vedam served a “sufficient sentence” — 43 years in prison — for a killing he was accused of committing as a teenager. Vedam and Kinser were each 19 years old at the time.
Vedam had been convicted in the fatal shooting of Kinser, a Boalsburg man and Colorado native whose remains were found in a sinkhole about nine months after he went missing. Vedam is the last known person to have seen Kinser alive.
At his 1988 trial, prosecutors alleged Vedam killed Kinser with a .25-caliber pistol he purchased shortly before Kinser’s disappearance. No weapon has ever been recovered, but a .25-caliber bullet and shell casing was found in Kinser’s remains.
His conviction and life sentence without the possibility of parole withstood appellate review for decades. His best opportunity to gain his freedom came when Cantorna’s office voluntarily allowed his lawyers to review their files.
Among the reams of documents, Vedam’s lawyers said they found an undisclosed handwritten note detailing a specific measurement of the wound in Kinser’s skull. It is believed to have been written by former District Attorney Ray Gricar.
They’ve argued the FBI report would have been critical to Vedam’s defense and that it showed the wound was too small to have been caused by a .25-caliber bullet. They instead have claimed Kinser was killed by a .22-caliber bullet.
Grine found that no amount of due diligence would have enabled Vedam to obtain the measurements until it was turned over decades later. Had that evidence been available at time, Grine said it could have “severed the link” between Vedam and the alleged crime and that there would have been a “reasonable probability that the jury’s judgment would have been affected.”
Cantorna did not appeal Grine’s ruling by Monday’s deadline. Balachandran said an appeal would have been “needlessly cruel and pointless.”
By all accounts, Vedam was a model inmate. He designed and led a prison literacy training program, raised money for Big Brothers Big Sisters, tutored hundreds of inmates and was the first person in the prison’s history to earn a master’s degree.
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 2:23 PM.