A 64-year-old man who served more than four decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit has been refused bail while challenging his removal from the United States.
Subramanyam Vedam will continue to be held in federal custody as he contests a deportation order from 1999. The Board of Immigration Appeals decided this month to review his case, citing what they termed extraordinary circumstances.
During the previous administration, officials had sought Vedam’s swift removal from the country and transferred him to a Louisiana detention facility last fall before two courts stepped in to halt the process.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Vedam’s attorney contended that her client would likely have avoided deportation and obtained citizenship if the murder case hadn’t derailed his life, considering the immigration policies that existed then. Attorney Ava Benach explained that Vedam would have completed his sentence on drug charges by 1992.
“It was delivery of LSD on a very small scale. This is not importing tons of cocaine,” Benach stated during Tuesday’s proceedings. “He is not a danger to the community. We are talking about offenses that occurred over 40 years ago.”
Last August, a Pennsylvania court dismissed Vedam’s murder conviction related to the 1980 killing of a college acquaintance, after discovering that prosecutors had concealed ballistics evidence during his two trials. Among those who participated remotely in the bail hearing were a Centre County prosecutor and State College’s mayor, where Vedam’s deceased father had served as a distinguished Penn State University professor, according to Benach.
Immigration Judge Tamar Wilson, presiding from Elizabeth, New Jersey, ruled that detention remains required due to his felony drug conviction. She also sided with Department of Homeland Security officials who maintain he poses a public safety threat.
“The fact he’s been a ‘model prisoner’ does not suggest that out in the general public he’s going to be safe,” Wilson stated.
Officials have not yet determined whether Wilson or another judge will preside over the deportation case proceedings. No future hearings have been set.
“Subu is nothing if not resilient, and we’re resolved to emulate the example he sets for us by focusing on the next step in his fight for freedom. We continue to believe his immigration case is strong and look forward to the day we can be together again,” his sister Saraswathi Vedam said, using his family nickname.
She had planned to take him home following his release from state prison on October 3rd, only to watch federal immigration authorities take him into custody instead. Vedam had entered the United States lawfully from India as an infant when his parents returned to State College.
“He was someone who’s suffered a profound injustice,” Benach told The Associated Press previously. “Those 43 years aren’t a blank slate. He lived a remarkable experience in prison.”
Vedam is currently detained at a 1,800-capacity U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in central Pennsylvania.
“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S,” a Department of Homeland Security representative said regarding the case last year.
