Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, the State College man who was released from prison after his conviction for first-degree murder was overturned last year, only to be taken into ICE custody, will remain in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center as the Department of Homeland Security appeals his release to the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals.
Last week, Vedam filed an emergency motion in court to be released while waiting for a potential appeal from DHS. A judge denied that appeal and gave DHS until May 13 to respond to Vedam's petition.
DHS also filed an appeal of a federal immigration judge's April 2 decision to free Vedam. Judge Adam Panopoulos granted Vedam relief from his deportation order to India, which was partially based on drug trafficking charges from the early 1980s, including pleading no contest to selling LSD.
In his ruling, Panopoulos said Vedam demonstrated "genuine rehabilitation" during his 44 years in prison and ICE custody and shows no risk of harm to the community. Panopoulos said Vedam has the potential to significantly contribute to American society if he’s released, since he’s already gotten a full-ride offer to Oregon State University to pursue a Ph.D. program and teach part-time.
In a press release, Vedam's sister Saraswathi Vedam said their family is "deeply disappointed and confused by the government’s callous act to appeal Subu’s case, and stall his eventual release."
“Even after all the gross injustices Subu has suffered, we could never have fathomed that he would remain behind bars more than eight months after he was exonerated for a crime he didn’t commit and more than two weeks after a court ruled that he deserves to stay in the country where all of his family are," Saraswathi Vedam said. "We urge the courts to rectify this debacle before it does more damage to Subu, his family, his community, and the integrity of the justice system.”
In an emailed statement to WPSU after the April 2 ruling, a DHS spokesperson called Vedam a "criminal illegal alien" and said that having his murder conviction overturned would not stop ICE's enforcement of federal immigration law.
