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Topics: Immigration, US News, Court, Crime, India
Joe Yates
A man who has just been freed after having been wrongfully imprisoned for more than 40 years, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately after his release.
Subramanyam 'Subu' Vedam, who was exonerated earlier this month after 43 years behind bars, barely had time to breathe the air outside prison walls before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers took him into custody.
Ruthlessly, they now plan to deport the 64-year-old to India - a country he hasn’t set foot in since he was just nine months old.
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Vedam was exonerated of a 1980 murder conviction after new evidence proved his innocence, ending a fight his family had been waging for more than forty years.
Records show his conviction was officially overturned on October 2, before being released the following day - straight into ICE detention.
According to reports, ICE officials are holding Vedam in a crowded facility with around 60 other men.
Jason Koontz, a spokesperson for the agency, issued the following statement: "Vedam is a career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980. He will be held in ICE custody while the agency arranges for his removal in accordance with all applicable laws and due-process requirements."
However, Koontz reportedly didn’t answer questions about Vedam’s current conditions, whether he’s able to contact his family or lawyer, or if he’s being given proper food and shelter.
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Vedam has managed to send brief messages to his relatives, telling them: "My name has been cleared, I’m no longer a prisoner, I’m a detainee."
Born in India but raised in State College, Pennsylvania, Vedam has spent virtually his entire life in the US. His niece Zoë Miller-Vedam joked to USA Today: "We tease him that he has more of a Philadelphia accent than anything else, because that’s the only way he’s ever spoken."
He was wrongly convicted in 1983 for the murder of childhood friend Thomas Kinser - a case built on shaky, circumstantial evidence and coerced testimony.
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After multiple appeals and retrials spanning decades, prosecutors finally dropped the case earlier this year.
But because of a 1988 deportation order issued during his second trial, ICE stepped in immediately after his release.
"We didn’t even have a moment to hold him in our arms," his sister Saraswathi Vedam told the 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."