Subramanyam ‘Subu’ Vedam, now 64, endured a devastating injustice, spending 43 years in a Pennsylvania prison for a murder he did not commit. Originally convicted at age 20 while studying in the US, his life sentence was eventually overturned when evidence was found to have been concealed by prosecutors, proving his innocence.
However, his freedom has been short-lived. Upon his release on October 3, Vedam was immediately taken into the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His family, who had been awaiting his release, learned that he would remain detained as the US government pursues deportation proceedings. ICE cites a deportation order from the 1980s, linked to his overturned murder conviction and an earlier drug offense, as the basis for their action.
Vedam, who left India as an infant, now faces the prospect of being sent to a country he barely knows, a consequence of a justice system failure and past legal entanglements, including a youthful mistake involving a drug conviction that his family describes as a youthful indiscretion.