Subu Vedam pushes for release 1 week after winning right to stay in the US
A State College man fighting to walk free for the first time since 1982 asked a judge Thursday to either order his release from the federal government’s custody or allow him to make his case at a bond hearing.
Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, remains at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center just outside Philipsburg more than a week after an immigration judge ruled he earned the right to stay in the U.S.
Despite the pivotal decision, two immigration judges have found that Vedam must remain in custody while the Department of Homeland Security decides whether to appeal by its May 4 deadline.
Should the finding stand and President Donald Trump’s administration appeals, Vedam would remain in custody — a possibility the family described as a dismal outcome that would “exacerbate the chronic pattern of injustices Vedam has endured for 44 years.”
“That raises the incongruous possibility that Vedam — a man who spent more than four decades in prison for a conviction that was ruled fraudulent, followed by more than six months in federal detention due to a deportation bid that was ruled unwarranted — would nonetheless continue to languish behind bars indefinitely,” a family spokesperson said Friday in a written statement.
Vedam’s attorneys argued the law that requires mandatory detention during an appeal period was not adopted until 1996, many years after they said he would have fought deportation had he not been wrongfully imprisoned.
Vedam was convicted of first-degree murder in the December 1980 killing of Thomas Kinser, 19, near State College, but his conviction was vacated in August based on ballistics evidence that Centre County prosecutors had not disclosed.
Attorney Tamara L. Jezic said in the filing that allowing Vedam to remain in mandatory custody “grotesquely punishes him for being the victim of violations of his constitutional right by the state.”
“This court should acknowledge that there should not be downstream negative consequences for Mr. Vedam because of the constitutional deficient criminal procedure which convicted him of murder and detained him for four decades,” Jezic wrote. “Mr. Vedam should not be subject to mandatory detention because he served more time in prison due to a constitutional violation.”
It is not known how soon U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV, who was appointed by Trump, will rule.
Vedam scored an important though not yet final victory last week when immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos cleared the way for his potential release after weighing 43 years of wrongful imprisonment against decades-old convictions for selling LSD.
The judge had listened to more than three hours of testimony, much of it from Vedam. It was his first time testifying since the 1980s.
Panopoulos noted Vedam’s nearly spotless, productive and charitable prison record and also praised him as a man who has “good moral character.” He further said Vedam’s continued presence in the country was “in the best interests of the United States.”
The Trump administration 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 last week in an email.
Vedam was born in India, but was brought legally to the U.S. when he was an infant. He was raised in Happy Valley and has said he was days away from earning his citizenship when he was arrested and charged based on circumstantial evidence with Kinser’s killing.
Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dropped the murder charge after the conviction was overturned. Vedam was then taken from Huntingdon state prison to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he has spent much of the past six months.