A federal immigration judge is denying bond for Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, the State College man whose conviction for first-degree murder was overturned last year.
Tuesday's hearing comes after a different federal judge vacated Vedam's deportation order and restored his permanent residency.
Tamar Wilson, a judge at the Newark Immigration Court in New Jersey, said she doesn't have the jurisdiction to release Vedam on bond because of his still existing felony conviction for drug trafficking.
Pennsylvania court records show in the 1980s, before Vedam's incarceration, that he sold drugs and was involved with LSD and marijuana use. Vedam's paperwork in Pennsylvania's judicial system website previously listed those charges with offense dates in 2005, but the Centre County Prothonotary's Office said this is a mistake from an electronic records transfer in 2003 and has since fixed the issue.
Wilson said even if Vedam was eligible for bond, she isn't confident he isn't a danger to the community. His lawyer, Ava Benach, pointed to Vedam's good conduct in prison, and that he would have been released in the 90s if not for the now overturned murder charge. Wilson said good conduct in prison doesn't necessarily equate to good conduct in society.
Centre County First Assistant District Attorney Joshua Andrews was at Tuesday's virtual court hearing to give more background on his office's review of Vedam's case. Speaking to WPSU after the court's decision to deny bond, Andrews said he knew Vedam would be facing a "significant legal barrier."
"It's been the position of our office that we didn't have any concerns for public safety," Andrews said. "He had been a model inmate, he had gone under many rehabilitative efforts that were presented to him."
Andrews said Vedam's charges for drug trafficking are only for small amounts of LSD, which Benach also pointed to during the hearing.
Vedam has until March 19 to appeal the judge's decision to deny bond. Until then, he is being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near Philipsburg.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
