Judge to soon decide if Subu Vedam will be released from ICE custody on bond
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson will decide Subu Vedam’s bond request.
- Oversight board vacated a 37-year deportation order and restored his permanent residency.
- If released, he must post bond, be supervised; deportation effort ongoing.
A judge will likely decide Tuesday whether a State College man who spent more than four decades in prison before his murder conviction was overturned should be released from federal custody on bond as he awaits the outcome of his immigration case.
Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, is asking immigration Judge Tamar Wilson to release him from the government’s physical custody for the first time since the early 1980s.
If successful, Vedam would be authorized for release from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near Philipsburg immediately. Should the judge make a decision Tuesday, a spokesperson for Vedam’s family said the expectation is that all paperwork would be complete by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Wilson could also wait to issue a written decision after Tuesday.
Vedam would not be a free man if his attorneys are able to sway the judge. He would be required to post the bond, be subject to court supervision and still face an ongoing deportation effort.
The opportunity arose this month after the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals vacated a 37-year-old deportation order against Vedam. The decision restored his permanent residency status and put a moratorium on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to deport him.
“Given the facts and circumstances in this particular case, we conclude that the record before us presents an exceptional situation,” Temporary Appellate Immigration Judge Paul A. McCloskey wrote in his decision.
McCloskey was appointed to the position in June by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
What to know about Subu Vedam’s case
Vedam was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after jurors twice convicted him of first-degree murder in the fatal 1980 shooting of Thomas Kinser, a 19-year Boalsburg man whose remains were found in a sinkhole about nine months after he went missing.
But the circumstantial case collapsed last year after decades-old documents showing a Centre County prosecutor failed to disclose evidence that could have proved his innocence surfaced. Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine vacated the conviction in August.
Two months later, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said his office would abandon the case. ICE then took Vedam into custody before he was freed from Huntingdon state prison.
The agency described him as a “career criminal” even though he has spent nearly his entire adult life incarcerated. He pleaded no contest to drug charges in 1984 — after his first murder conviction — for selling LSD in State College.
In pushing for his release on bond, Vedam’s attorneys said in a court document that he is neither a danger nor flight risk. They’ve previously pointed to his nearly spotless record in prison.
Vedam came to the U.S. legally from India as an infant and was raised in State College, where his late father taught at Penn State. His family was among the first from India to make their home in Happy Valley and was a pillar of the community, especially among immigrants.
He is the second-longest-serving exoneree in Pennsylvania history and one of the 25 longest-serving exonerees in the U.S., according to The National Registry of Exonerations.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 11:58 AM.