After 43 years of wrongful imprisonment, Indian-origin man faces deportation from US

Subramanyam Vedam, an Indian-origin man who immigrated to the US as an infant of 9 months and lived most of his life in the US and was a lawful permanent resident. In December 1980, Vedam was wrongfully arrested for killing his friend Thomas Kinser and was later released after serving sentence for 43 years. On October 3, as Vedam was being released from state prison in Pennsylvania, he was immediately taken into federal immigration custody by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), based on a decades-old conviction order tied to convictions now vacated.

"He was someone who's suffered a profound injustice," said immigration lawyer Ava Benach. "(And) those 43 years aren't a blank slate. He lived a remarkable experience in prison."

43 years of wrongful punishment

Vedam and Thomas Kinser were friends. In December 1980, 19-year-old Thomas Kinser, the son of a Penn State faculty member, went missing in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Subramanyam Vedam was the last person to see Kinser alive. According to Vedam, he had asked Kinser for a ride to buy drugs. Almost a year later, in September 1981, Kinser's body was recovered in a sinkhole in a wooded area; he was shot in the head. In 1982, Vedam was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Despite a lack of direct evidence, a murder weapon, or eyewitnesses. Prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence and claimed that Vedam shot Kinser with a .25-calibre pistol bullet that was never found.

During his time in prison, he earned several degrees and tutored his fellow inmates. In 2023, lawyers found a concealed FBI report from the original case. The report revealed that Kinser's bullet wound was too small to have been fired from the type of gun prosecutors had claimed Vedam used. In August 2025, a judge overturned the murder conviction in light of new evidence that came to the surface, which was withheld by the prosecutor.

Vedam's citizenship debate

Vedam's father was a postdoctoral fellow in 1956. They were among the first Indian family in the town ‘Happy Valley’. Vedam is a permanent legal citizen of the United States but faces deportation based on a 1999 order that was issued due to his original murder conviction and a related drug offence. His lawyers and family had pleaded to the Trump administration that his decades of wrongful imprisonment and record of good behaviour in prison should be considered.

"Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S," said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson

"He has provided no evidence or argument to show he has been diligent in pursuing his rights as it pertains to his immigration status," said Katherine B. Frisch. He might have to wait months before a Board of Immigration Appeals responds if they will reopen the case.