Homeland Security appeals ruling that would allow Subu Vedam to stay in US
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday appealed a judge’s ruling that would allow a State College man to remain in the U.S. and walk free in the country for the first time since 1982.
Combined with a setback in a parallel legal challenge, the decision effectively ensures Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, will remain at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center just outside Philipsburg for at least another month.
A family spokesperson said Thursday that the appeal and a longer-than-hoped-for district court review has “pushed the staggering hardships Vedam has withstood into a new level of surreal territory.”
He spent more than 43 years at Huntingdon state prison on a wrongful murder conviction and an additional 6 1/2 months in immigration detention because of a deportation effort that was ruled unwarranted.
His sister, Saraswathi Vedam, said in a written statement that the family is deeply disappointed and confused by the federal government’s “callous act.”
“Even after all the gross injustices Subu has suffered, we could never have fathomed that he would remain behind bars more than eight months after he was exonerated for a crime he didn’t commit and more than two weeks after a court ruled that he deserves to stay in the country where all of his family are,” she said. “We urge the courts to rectify this debacle before it does more damage to Subu, his family, his community, and the integrity of the justice system.”
A message left Thursday with DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned. The appeal will be heard by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals.
Despite the immigration victory for Vedam, an immigration judge found he must stay detained during the appeal period. It’s not known how long that process will take.
Hoping to avoid that possibility, Vedam’s immigration attorneys asked U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV to swiftly intervene and reverse the decision. But in an order signed Monday, Stickman gave the government until May 13 to respond to Vedam’s petition.
His immigration attorneys argued 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.
“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,” immigration attorney Tamara L. Jezic wrote in the petition. “Mr. Vedam should not be subject to mandatory detention because he served more time in prison due to a constitutional violation.”
Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos cleared the way for Vedam to potentially remain in the U.S. after weighing more than four decades of wrongful imprisonment against decades-old convictions for selling LSD.
The decision came this month after Panopoulos listened to more than three hours of testimony, much of it from Vedam. The judge 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.”
Vedam was born in India, but was legally brought to the U.S. when he was an infant and was days away from taking his oath of U.S. citizenship when he was arrested in 1982. He was charged with first-degree murder based on circumstantial evidence in the December 1980 killing of Thomas Kinser, 19, near State College.
Vedam was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but his conviction was vacated in August based on ballistics evidence that previous Centre County prosecutors had not disclosed.
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 will seemingly remain for at least another month.