A State College man who was detained on a deportation order upon his release after four decades in prison for a now-overturned murder conviction will remain in custody while the federal government appeals an immigration judge’s ruling that he can remain in the United States.
U.S. District Judge William Stickman said on Tuesday that he does not have jurisdiction to overturn an earlier immigration court ruling that Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam is subject to mandatory detention during the government’s appeal of his victory, meaning Vedam will remain in custody at the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center indefinitely until the case is resolved.
“As both a matter of both law and morality, it is unbelievable that the government can continue to hold him in detention even after an immigration court has recognized his right to live freely in the United States,” Subu Vedam’s sister, Saraswathi Vedam, said in a statement. “Based on his four decades of service and contributions, an immigration judge ruled that America would be best served by letting him come home, so the government shouldn’t have a reason to keep him in captivity any longer. He could instead be reunited with his family.”
Vedam was released from Huntingdon state prison in October after a Centre County judge vacated his conviction for the 1980 murder of Thomas Kinser, but was immediately detained by ICE for a deportation order issued in the 1990s based on his separate, decades-old conviction for selling LSD when he was 19. He has remained in government custody since then.
The 64-year-old was born in India but has lived in the United States since he was nine months old and was a legal permanent resident, or green card holder, close to earning his citizenship when he was arrested in the spring of 1982. He has no immediate family in India and does not speak any of the country’s languages.
Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos on April 2 granted Vedam’s request for a waiver from deportation, saying that he demonstrated “good moral character” over the last four decades and that it “would be in the best interest of the United States” for him to remain in the country.
Though Panopoulos ruled that Vedam should remain in the U.S., citing his exemplary record as an inmate during his lengthy incarceration before he was exonerated and his strong family bonds, the government has appealed. Panopoulos subsequently denied Vedam’s request for release on bond during the appeal period, upholding another judge’s previous ruling that he is subject to mandatory detention while the case is ongoing.
Vedam asked the U.S. Western District Court of Pennsylvania to intervene by ordering his release or a bond hearing.
His attorneys argued that had he not been incarcerated for the murder for which he has since been exonerated, he would have been released from prison on the drug conviction no later than 1992. A deportation order had not been issued then, and if it were Vedam would have been eligible for bond under federal law at the time.
On Tuesday, Stickman ruled that federal law does not limit the length of detention during removal cases and that his court “has no jurisdiction to second guess or
reconsider the IJs’ decisions.”
“As a result of Stickman’s ruling, Vedam remains mired in his 44th consecutive year behind bars, even though both of the legal cases that put him there – his wrongful murder conviction and the ensuing threat to deport him – have collapsed under judicial scrutiny,” a Vedam family spokesperson wrote in a statement. “By denying Vedam, a native of State College, PA, the recourse to challenge his ongoing detention, the decision exacerbates a chronic series of injustices that Vedam, himself, described in recent court testimony as ‘Kafkaesque.’”
Vedam was first arrested and jailed for selling LSD, and soon after was charged with the murder of fellow 19-year-old State College area resident Kinser, who was last seen in December 1980 and whose body was discovered by hikers in Harris Township in the fall of 1981.
He was convicted of murder in 1983 and again at a retrial in 1988. But in recent years his post-conviction attorneys uncovered suppressed ballistics evidence that Centre County Judge Jonathan Grine determined had a strong likelihood of swaying the jury to find him not guilty, had it been presented.
Grine overturned the conviction in August. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna then dropped the charges on Oct. 2, saying that the case would be nearly impossible to prosecute with key evidence and witnesses no longer available and that he believed Vedam posed no danger to society.
On the day of his release, however, Vedam was taken into custody by ICE and later was transported from the Moshannon Valley facility to Texas then Louisiana in preparation for his removal. He was then returned to the Clearfield County facility after a federal district court granted an emergency stay.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals in February put a moratorium on ICE’s efforts to deport Vedam while his case proceeded through immigration court, with a judge writing that his case “presents an exceptional situation.”
After more than three hours of testimony during a hearing in April, much of it by Vedam himself, Panopoulos’ ruled that Vedam could live freely in the U.S., saying that during his time in prison “the choices that he did make consistently point to a man who has good moral character.”
“He never engaged in any fights and was never accused of violence of any kind. He felt compelled to act in response to what he saw as injustices within the prison system, such as the high rates of illiteracy in the prison population. He dedicated himself to connecting with his U.S. citizen family members, just as if he was not inside prison and was building those relationships with his family members throughout his life. He consistently read and studied to sharpen his mind and achieve advanced degrees.
“All this evidence taken together indicates to this court that [Vedam], from his 20s until his mid-60s, took actions that objectively demonstrate that he is a person of good moral character.”
