A federal immigration judge has vacated the deportation order and restored permanent residency for Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, the State College man whose conviction for first-degree murder was overturned last year.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued Vedam's deportation order in 1988 based on charges for murder and pleading no contest to possession of LSD with intent to sell.
Last week, immigration judge Paul McCloskey vacated the deportation order, pointing to prosecutorial misconduct from the original trials and the now overturned murder conviction. The Centre County Court of Common pleas ruled that the prosecutor at the time, Ray Gricar, unlawfully concealed evidence that could have proved Vedam's innocence.
Vedam was released from the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon in October, but immediately detained by ICE agents and taken to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near Philipsburg. Vedam was then taken to a facility in Louisiana and awaited transportation to Texas, where he would have faced deportation. But, Vedam’s deportation was temporarily blocked and he was taken back to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he remains today.
Vedam’s attorneys want him released on bond. Meanwhile, Vedam’s case is being transferred to another immigration judge for review.
Vedam, who is now 64 years old, is an Indian-American immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1962 when he was nine months old, according to an advocacy website created by Vedam's supporters.
