Civil rights advocates are calling for the immediate release of Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, a Pennsylvania man who has been exonerated after spending more than four decades in prison but remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody due to a decades-old deportation order.
Vedam, 64, walked out of Huntingdon State Correctional Institution on Oct. 3 after spending 43 years behind bars for a 1980 murder that the courts now say he did not commit. His conviction was vacated after a judge ruled that prosecutors had withheld evidence undermining the state's case, and the Centre County district attorney dismissed all charges.
But, as The Miami Herald reports, Vedam never made it home. ICE officers were waiting outside the prison to detain him under a removal order dating back to the 1980s — tied to a minor drug conviction from his youth. He was transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in central Pennsylvania, where he remains while the agency prepares for possible deportation to India, which he left as an infant.
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"After 43 years of wrongful imprisonment, he's being punished twice," said Mike Truppa, a spokesperson for the Vedam family, to the Herald. "He's lost his entire adult life, and now the government wants to send him to a place he doesn't know, away from everyone he loves."
In a statement obtained by ABC last week, ICE described Vedam as "a convicted controlled substance trafficker" with a "standing removal order lawfully issued by a federal immigration judge." The agency said he will remain in custody "while ICE arranges for his removal in accordance with all applicable laws and due-process requirements."
Vedam's attorneys have filed a motion asking immigration authorities to reopen the case, arguing that his wrongful conviction and record of rehabilitation justify relief from removal. The government has until Oct. 24 to respond.
His niece, Zoë Miller Vedam, said the family is "exhausted but hopeful" as the deadline approaches:
"He's never seen the internet. He's never had a phone. He's never lived outside a prison cell since the early 1980s. Sending him to India now would just continue the injustice that stole his life"
Advocates from criminal justice and immigration reform groups have rallied behind Vedam's case, calling it emblematic of how outdated immigration laws can extend punishment even after exoneration. "He's not a threat to anyone," Truppa said. "He's a man who's already suffered enough."
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