India-Born Man in US Wrongfully Imprisoned 43 Years for Fake Murder Says “I’m Still a Detainee”

Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam's story is one of extraordinary endurance and deep injustice. The India-born Green Card holder, who moved to the United States as a nine-month-old infant, finally walked free on October 3 after spending 43 years in a Pennsylvania prison for a murder he did not commit.

But his long-awaited freedom was short-lived. Within moments of his release, officers from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him for deportation to India, a country he left as a baby and has never called home.

A New Detention After Decades of Injustice

ICE officials said Vedam's detention was based on a "legacy deportation order" from the 1980s, connected to a teenage drug conviction for possessing and intending to distribute LSD. That order had remained inactive while he served his life sentence for murder.

Even after being cleared of the murder charge, the old drug conviction still stood, allowing ICE to enforce the decades-old deportation order. Vedam, now 64, is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania with about 60 other detainees.

He told his family, "My name has been cleared, I'm no longer a prisoner, I'm a detainee."

Although he is able to communicate with his family more freely than before, the situation is still far from the life of freedom he imagined. Both of his parents passed away before they could see him released, leaving behind only his sister and nieces who are now fighting for his complete freedom.

The Legal Battle to Stop Deportation

Vedam's family and legal team are trying to prevent his deportation to India. His niece, Zoe Miller-Vedam, told USA Today that after spending more than 40 years in prison, he would struggle to adapt to life outside, and deportation to India would make things even harder.

ICE official Jason Koontz described Vedam as a "career criminal" with a criminal record from the 1980s. He said Vedam would remain in custody pending deportation while ICE followed "legal and due-process protocols."

Vedam's lawyer, Ava Benach, has filed a motion to reopen his immigration case and a petition to pause the deportation while it is under review. "Subu has lived in the US since he was a nine-month-old infant when he and his family arrived as lawful permanent residents of the United States," Benach said. "He was still a lawful permanent resident, and his application for citizenship had been accepted, when he was arrested in 1982."

The Murder Case That Stole His Life

The case that took away most of Vedam's life began in December 1980 when 19-year-old Thomas Kinser disappeared in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Nine months later, Kinser's body was found in a sinkhole with a gunshot wound to his head.

Vedam, then a college student and former roommate of Kinser, was arrested in 1982. There was no murder weapon, no motive, and no eyewitness linking him to the crime. Despite this, prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and claimed he used a .25-caliber pistol that was never found.

He was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. After appeals, he was retried and convicted again in 1988. Vedam continued to maintain his innocence, insisting that the case against him was built on false evidence and assumptions.

How Hidden Evidence Finally Proved His Innocence

In 2022, a major breakthrough occurred when new documents surfaced that had been hidden by the prosecution. A legal team led by Professor Gopal Balachandran at Penn State's Dickinson Law discovered an FBI report and handwritten notes in the Centre County District Attorney's files.

These records showed that the bullet wound in Kinser's skull was too small to have been caused by a .25-caliber bullet, directly contradicting the prosecution's entire argument. The FBI report and other documents had never been shared with the defense during the trial.

In October 2025, a Centre County judge overturned Vedam's conviction, stating that if the evidence had been presented earlier, the jury's verdict might have been different. On October 2, 2025, the District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges, acknowledging that witnesses had died and too much time had passed.

Vedam officially became the longest-serving wrongfully convicted person in Pennsylvania's history, and one of the longest in the United States.

From Wrongful Conviction to a New Fight for Freedom

During his decades in prison, Vedam never gave up. He earned three degrees magna cum laude, including an MBA with a perfect GPA, which was the first in his prison's 150-year history. He also started literacy and charity programs that benefited other inmates and earned him recognition from education and community groups.

Now, even after being declared innocent, Vedam faces another struggle for true freedom. "All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life," his niece told USA Today. His sister, Saraswathi Vedam, said, "This immigration issue is a remnant of Subu's original case. We have asked the immigration court to reopen it."

Vedam's mother passed away in 2016 after visiting him weekly for 34 years. His father, Professor K. Vedam, a retired physicist, passed away in 2009.

For now, Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam remains in ICE custody. He is free in one sense but still confined in another. His haunting words reflect his lifelong struggle: "I'm still a detainee."