After serving 43 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam was finally free.
New evidence had exonerated him earlier this month of the murder of his former roommate.
But before he could reach his family’s arms, Mr Vedam was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who want to deport him to India – a country he has not lived in since he was a baby.
Now, Mr Vedam’s legal team is fighting a deportation order and his family is determined to get him out of custody, for good.
His family are now working to navigate a new and “very different” situation, his sister Saraswathi Vedam told the BBC.
Her brother has gone from a facility where he knew inmates and guards alike, where he mentored fellow inmates, and where he had his own cell, to a facility where he shares a room with 60 men and where his history of good behaviour and mentorship is unknown.
Mr Vedam has been repeating one message to his sister and other family members in the wake of the new situation: “I want us to focus on the win.”
“My name has been cleared, I’m no longer a prisoner, I’m a detainee.”
The 1980 murder
More than 40 years ago, Mr Vedam was convicted of murdering his once-roommate Tom Kinser, a 19-year-old college student.
Kinser’s body was found nine months after he went missing in a wooded area with a bullet wound in his skull.
On the day of Kinser’s disappearance, Mr Vedam had asked him for a ride. While the vehicle Kinser drove was returned to its usual spot, no one saw it being returned.
Mr Vedam was charged with Kinser’s murder. He was denied bail, had his passport and green card seized by authorities and was labelled a “foreigner likely to flee”.
Two years later he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1984, he was sentenced to a separate two-and-a-half to five years for a drug offence, as part of a plea agreement. That sentence was to be served simultaneously with his life sentence.
Throughout that time, Mr Vedam maintained his innocence on the murder charges.
His supporters and family members stressed there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime.
Mr Vedam’s exoneration
Mr Vedam repeatedly appealed the murder conviction and a few years ago new evidence in the case surfaced which exonerated.
Earlier this month, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said he would not pursue a new trial against Mr Vedam.
But Mr Vedam’s family knew there was one hurdle left before he was free: he still had a 1988 deportation order, based on his convictions for murder and a drug offence.
The family expected they would have to file a motion to have his immigration case reopened, Ms Vedam said.
The facts of the case are different now, she stressed.
But when they arrested him, ICE cited the immigration order as their reasoning for quickly detaining him in a different Pennsylvania facility.
While he was exonerated for the murder charge, his drug conviction still stands, they have said. The immigration agency said it acted on a lawfully issued order.
ICE did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment, but told other US outlets that Mr Vedam will remain in custody pending his deportation.
Mr Vedam’s family has said his decades of good behaviour, completion of three degrees and community service while behind bars should be considered when the immigration court examines his case.
“What was deeply disappointing was that we didn’t even have a moment to hold him in our arms,” Ms Vedam said. “He was held wrongly and one would think that he conducted himself with such honour and purpose and integrity that that should mean something.”
Potential deportation to India
The family has stressed Mr Vedam’s ties to India – where ICE has said they would like to deport him to – are weak at best.
While he was born there, he moved to the US at nine months old. What relatives are still alive, are distant ones, Ms Vedam told the BBC.
His community – Ms Vedam, her four daughters and other cousins – are in the US and Canada.
“He will again be robbed and miss out on the lives of the people closet to him, by being half way across the world,” she said. “It’s almost like having his life stolen twice.”
Mr Vedam, who is a legal permanent resident, had his citizenship application accepted before he was arrested. Both of his parents were also both US citizens.
“We believe deportation from the United States now, to send him to a country where he has few connections, would represent another terrible wrong done to a man who has already endured a record-setting injustice,” his lawyer, Ava Benach said in a statement to the BBC.
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