Subu Vedam wins bid to stay in US, walk free for first time since 1982
A State College man who spent more than four decades in prison before his murder conviction was vacated — only to immediately face deportation — won his bid Thursday to stay in the U.S.
Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos cleared the way for the potential release of Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, after weighing 43 years of wrongful imprisonment against decades-old drug convictions.
“Thank you, everybody,” Vedam said with a smile after the ruling. He earlier clasped his hands together and appeared to give a thumbs up from a small room inside the Moshannon Valley Processing Center just outside Philipsburg.
In a written statement later shared by a family spokesperson, Vedam added that he was grateful for the decision.
“I’d like to recognize that I have a really, really special family. I’d also like to thank the many, many friends that have supported and believed in me over the past 44 years,” Vedam said. “Without their belief in justice, I don’t think my success would have been possible.”
It was not immediately clear when Vedam would be released or whether the federal government would appeal by its May 4 deadline. The Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer the Centre Daily Times when asked about an appeal but intimated the case might not be over just yet.
“His murder conviction was vacated. Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE’s enforcement of the federal immigration law,” the DHS wrote Thursday in an email.
Vedam’s legal team said it will seek his release on bond during the appeal period. When Vedam is released, it will be the first time he’s walked free since 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president and years before the internet as we know it existed.
“We’re profoundly grateful to Judge Panopoulous not only for affording Subu the justice he had been deprived over so many decades, but also for seeing him as the honorable, compassionate, conscientious man — he has always been,” Vedam’s sister Saraswathi Vedam said in a written statement. “We had dared to dream that this day would come, sharing Subu’s belief that the truth would prevail.
“Even through 44 years of setbacks, Subu never let it defeat his spirit. Though sentenced wrongly to life without parole, he lived an exemplary life of service and education. Today’s decision was possible because the judge took the time to review his record with care, so he could understand how Subu Vedam transcended injustice to leave such a positive imprint on those around him.”
Panopoulos’ ruling, issued remotely from a New Jersey courtroom, came after he listened Wednesday to more than three hours of testimony, much of it from Vedam. It was his first time testifying since the 1980s.
The judge said Thursday that the case was unusual and extraordinary.
“I believe 43 years is enough,” Vedam added when asked why he felt like he should be released. “I’ve been in jail for a long time, unjustly. I’m part of this society. I’ve never really thought of myself being anywhere else but from State College and from the U.S.”
Vedam said he hopes to live with one of his nieces in Sacramento, California, where he would be an “uncle nanny” for her 18-month-old daughter. He also said he was offered a full scholarship for a PhD program in economics and anthropology at Oregon State University.
Panopoulos rejected the Department of Homeland Security’s argument that Vedam’s legal issues in the early 1980s — including drug convictions for selling LSD in State College — amounted to a crime spree that warranted deportation.
He instead sided with Vedam and immigration attorney Ava Benach, who described them as poor choices of a young adult. They also pointed to his nearly spotless, productive and charitable prison record.
“I was young and stupid,” Vedam testified when asked why he used drugs. “I know it was common usage back then. ... I certainly would not make those choices today.”
Panopoulos said he viewed Vedam’s time in prison as part of a “new journey, of finding a purpose for his life in the United States.” He also found that Vedam took responsibility for his crimes, posed no danger to the community and is a man who has “good moral character.”
“He felt compelled to act in response to what he saw were injustices in the system,” Panopoulos said of Vedam’s time in prison. “He dedicated himself to his family. He consistently read and studied to sharpen his mind.”
Vedam was born in India, a country with which he has little to no connection. He was brought to the U.S. legally as an infant and was raised in Happy Valley, where his late father taught at Penn State and his mother volunteered. He said he was days away from earning his citizenship when he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Thomas Kinser, 19, near State College.
He was twice convicted of murder in the 1980s based on circumstantial evidence, but his post-conviction attorneys gained access in 2022 to ballistics evidence that Centre County prosecutors had not disclosed.
Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine vacated the murder conviction in August and District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dropped the charge two months later. Vedam was released the following day from Huntingdon state prison, but was immediately taken into ICE custody.
“What defines him is not a year and a half of bad behavior, of dumb choices that he made when he was a 19- and 20-year-old man,” Benach said Wednesday. “What is before you is someone who, for 44 years, has chosen to try to improve himself, improve those around him.”
Kinser’s family has not spoken publicly about the overturned conviction. When Cantorna made his announcement, he told reporters he spoke with Kinser’s sibling and it was clear his decision brought forward “pain and injury and harm that has laid dormant for a very long time.”
Vedam has always professed his innocence, including as recently as Wednesday. When asked if he killed Kinser, he testified he “most certainly did not.”
“The court finds that the stain of the respondent’s bad acts from the early 1980s, over time, have slowly dissipated to a point where the respondent has taken on a new identity, a new life and became a new person,” Panopoulos said. “And this is the person who the court finds has come before the court today in the year 2026.
“... Ultimately, the court concludes that the respondent has the genuine potential to contribute significantly and positively to the benefit of American society.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 10:43 AM.