After 40 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam and his family are appealing for his release from another U.S. facility.
Following fresh evidence, the 64-year-old was acquitted of 1980 murder charges earlier this month. His family had proclaimed his innocence for nearly four decades.
After being released, Vedam was immediately held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and threatened with deportation to India, where he hasn’t resided since he was 9 months old, almost 50 years ago.
Records indicate that Vedam’s 1983 murder conviction was dismissed on Oct. 2, 2025, after he earned a two-and-a-half-year drug term. BBC, The Miami Herald, and USA Today reported his Oct. 3 release from jail and ICE arrest.
Vedam’s spokesperson did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for an update on his health and attempts to liberate him from U.S. prison on Monday.
ICE spokesperson Jason Koontz told PEOPLE that Vedam, 64, is a “career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980” and “will be held in ICE custody while the agency arranges for his removal in accordance with all applicable laws and due-process requirements.”
Koontz, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to PEOPLE’s multiple requests for comment on Vedam’s condition and treatment in federal immigration custody, including whether he has been allowed contact with his family or legal representatives or is receiving adequate food and shelter.
Vedam is being held alongside 60 other guys by ICE, according to the BBC. Vedam’s custody circumstances are unknown since the ICE spokeswoman didn’t respond to PEOPLE’s inquiry. Vedam was not found in ICE’s online prisoner directory on Monday.
BBC says Vedam may send his family texts saying, “My name has been cleared, I’m no longer a prisoner, I’m a detainee.”
USA Today said that Vedam was born in India when his American parents were traveling. He grew up at State College, Pa.
We joke that Vedam has a Philadelphia accent, since it’s the only way he’s ever spoken, according to his niece, Zoë Miller-Vedam.
On February 8, 1983, Vedam was falsely convicted of first-degree murder for the death of his Pennsylvania boyhood friend and roommate Thomas Kinser.
USA Today said that Vedam requested Kinser for a ride the day he vanished in December 1980. Vedam was the last to see Kinser alive after his automobile was returned without witnesses. According to the Exoneration Registry, two adolescents gathering firewood found Kinser’s skull-shot bones in a sinkhole in the woods the following September.
Vedam was condemned to life in jail based on circumstantial evidence and statements given under duress by local police, according to the Exoneration Registry. He appealed his conviction for 40 years.
Vedam’s conviction was reviewed in August after two 1980s murder trials and three post-conviction petitions. District Attorney Bernie Cantorna of Centre County declined to try Vedam again.
ICE authorities arrested Vedam shortly after his release from jail based on a 1988 deportation order from his second trial, which called him a “foreigner likely to flee.”
After Vedam was freed from jail, his family prepared to challenge the 1988 ruling and protest it, according to the BBC. However, Vedam’s family must struggle again for his liberation.
“All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life,” Miller-Vedam, Vedam’s niece, told USA Today. She said he would likely need to rely on his family and struggle in a technologically and socially changed world since his 40-year imprisonment.
“What was deeply disappointing was that we didn’t even have a moment to hold him in our arms,” Vedam’s sister Saraswathi told BBC. “He was held wrongly and one would think that he conducted himself with such honor and purpose and integrity that that should mean something.”
