A State College man who spent 43 years in prison on a now-overturned murder conviction remains in custody at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center more than a week after a judge ruled he could remain in the United States.
Now, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam is asking a federal court to intervene and order either his release from the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center near Philipsburg or a bond hearing to determine if he can be freed while the government decides whether to appeal the ruling blocking his deportation.
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 and based on his separate, decades-old conviction for selling LSD when he was 19-years-old.
Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos on April 2 granted Vedam’s request for a waiver from deportation, saying that the 64-year-old 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. But on Wednesday, Panopoulos denied Vedam’s request to be released on bond during the Department of Homeland Security’s 30-day appeal period.
Panopoulos said that his ruling for relief from deportation did not change Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson’s previous ruling in February that Vedam is subject to mandatory detention until his case is resolved because the drug charged to which he pleaded no contest are considered aggravated felonies. Wilson also said at the time that because he had been incarcerated for more than four decades he could not demonstrate he posed no danger to the community, despite his exemplary record as an inmate.
The mandatory detention would be in place during the 30 days the government has to appeal and during any subsequent appeals.
“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 spokesperson for Vedam’s family said in a statement. “That dismal outcome would exacerbate the chronic pattern of injustices Vedam has endured for 44 years – a predicament he described in court last week as “Kafkaesque.”
In a petition filed Thursday in the U.S. Western District Court of Pennsylvania, attorney Tamara L. Jezic wrote that had Vedam 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.
“To subject Mr. Vedam to mandatory detention because he remained in prison due to a constitutional defect in his criminal proceedings grotesquely punishes him for being the victim of violations of his constitutional right by the state,” Jezic wrote.
It is not clear when U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman might rule on the petition.
The government is seeking to deport Vedam to India, where he was born in 1961 during a brief period when his parents returned to their home country. He has lived in the United States since he was nine months old, however, and was a green card holder close to earning his citizenship when he was arrested in 1982.
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 vacated 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.
After more than three hours of testimony during a hearing earlier this month, Panopoulos’ ruling that Vedam could live freely in the U.S. cited his close bond with his sister and nieces, extensive support system and exemplary record while incarcerated, during which he earned three degrees, including a master’s, developed literacy programs, organized an annual run benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters and tutored and mentored other inmates.
“He made a choice to live his life in a particular way,” Panopoulous said. “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.”
