Wrongfully imprisoned 43 years, Subu Vedam now seeks release. What’s next?

A State College man whose murder conviction was vacated due to prosecutorial suppression of ballistics evidence is now challenging the federal government’s authority to keep him detained, arguing that mandatory detention laws enacted in 1996 should not apply retroactively to a conviction rooted in constitutional violations.

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, asked a federal judge last week to either order his release from custody or allow him to make his case at a bond hearing. Vedam remains at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center just outside Philipsburg nearly two weeks after an immigration judge ruled he earned the right to stay in the U.S.

Despite that pivotal ruling, two immigration judges have found that Vedam must remain in custody while the Department of Homeland Security decides whether to appeal. The legal question is now before U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.

The constitutional violation at the core

Vedam was convicted of first-degree murder in the December 1980 killing of Thomas Kinser, 19, near State College. His conviction was vacated in August based on ballistics evidence that Centre County prosecutors had not disclosed.

Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dropped the murder charge after the conviction was overturned. But rather than walking free, Vedam was transferred from Huntingdon state prison to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he has spent much of the past six months.

The retroactivity argument against mandatory detention

Vedam’s attorneys advanced a central legal argument: the law requiring 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.

Attorney Tamara L. Jezic argued 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.”

An immigration judge’s assessment: ‘Good moral character’

Vedam scored an important though not yet final victory this month 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 road ahead: Key dates and decision points

Two key decision points lie ahead.

First, the Department of Homeland Security has until its May 4 deadline to decide whether to appeal Panopoulos’ ruling. 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 this month in an email.

Second, it is not known how soon Stickman will rule on Vedam’s motion for release or a bond hearing. In an order signed Monday, he gave the government 30 days to respond to Vedam’s request.

Should the Trump administration appeal, 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 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.

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