A State College man who spent more than four decades in state prison for a now-overturned murder conviction could soon be released from federal custody while his immigration case proceeds.
Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson on Tuesday will hear Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam‘s request to be released on bond from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County near Philipsburg, where he has spent most of the past four months since being taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the day of his release from Huntingdon state prison.
While it is customary for a judge to rule immediately from the bench in such cases, it is not unprecedented for the matter to be considered for several days before a written ruling is issued, a spokesperson for Vedam’s family said.
If Wilson rules in Vedam’s favor, his attorneys expect the 64-year-old will be released from the detention center on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The bond hearing comes on the heels of a recent ruling by the U.S. Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals to vacate Vedam’s deportation order and return his case to immigration court.
“Given the facts and circumstances in this particular case, we conclude that the record before us presents an exceptional situation,” Temporary Appellate Immigration Judge Paul A. McCloskey, who was appointed to the BIA by Attorney General Pam Bondi in June 2025, wrote in the opinion explaining the decision.
Vedam, 64, was taken into custody on Oct. 3 on a detainer issued in 1999 related to a no contest plea, entered after his 1983 conviction for the murder of Thomas Kinser near State College, on charges of receiving stolen property and selling LSD when he was 19.
An ICE spokesperson called a “career criminal,” even though he spent nearly his entire adult life in prison.
In arguing to waive the deportation order, Vedam’s attorney’s said that it should be withdrawn based on his exoneration in a murder case for which he was jailed since his arrest in 1982 and his exemplary record as an inmate. He earned three degrees while incarcerated, becoming the first inmate in Huntingdon state prison’s 150-year history to earn a master’s while incarcerated, created and led a prison literacy training program, led fundraising efforts for Big Brothers Big Sisters and tutored other inmates to help them earn diplomas.
Prior to the BIA decision, a federal court in October issued an emergency stay of deportation after ICE transported Vedam from the Moshannon Valley facility to Texas in preparation for his removal. He was then returned to Clearfield County.
ICE has sought to deport him to India, where he was born during a brief period when his parents returned to their native country. Vedam has no immediate family there or resources to assimilate, the family spokesperson said, and having lived in State College since he was nine months old, he is a green card holder who was on the cusp of earning his citizenship when he was arrested.
He was convicted in 1983 and again at a 1988 retrial for Kinser’s murder. Kinser had last been seen by family on Dec. 14, 1980, when he borrowed a van to drive his friend and fellow 19-year-old State College area resident Vedam to Lewistown to buy LSD. Vedam said Kinser dropped him off in State College when they returned and he did not know what happened to him after that.
After hikers discovered Kinser’s body on Sept. 19, 1981 in a sinkhole at Bear Meadows in Harris Township, prosecutors said Vedam used a .25 caliber handgun to shoot his friend in the head. Vedam’s conviction was based in part on his purchase of a .25 caliber gun, which he said he did not acquire until after Kinser’s death, and a shell casing of the same caliber found under Kinser’s remains. Casings of different calibers were also found in the area.
A murder weapon was never found, and in recent years Vedam’s post-conviction attorneys uncovered evidence not presented at either trial, including documents they say showed that bullet hole in Kinser’s skull was too small to have been made by a .25.
In August, a Centre County judge ruled that the evidence could have swayed the jury to find Vedam not guilty at trial and overturned the conviction. Two months later, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna announced that he would drop the charges against Vedam because, with key evidence and witnesses no longer available, it would be nearly impossible to prosecute the decades-old case.
