A judge cleared the way Thursday for the potential release of an Indian man in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after a Pennsylvania murder conviction was overturned, according to testimony at a hearing conducted this week. U.S. Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos said Subramanyam Vedam had shown he was genuinely rehabilitated and would not pose a danger to the public, clearing the path for release consideration.
Vedam, 64, insisted during the proceedings that he did not fatally shoot Thomas Kinser in 1980. Vedam said he was “young and stupid and did a lot of dumb things back then,” and he told the judge he has been behind bars since March 31, 1982.
Thursday’s ruling followed a hearing Wednesday that lasted about four hours, during which Vedam participated remotely from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. In court, Vedam was questioned by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security lawyer as the federal government argued he should be deported to India, the country he left as a baby in 1962.
Panopoulos said Vedam had grown as a person and began dedicating himself to enriching other people’s lives through academic study and enrichment, including efforts to improve literacy among inmates. The judge also cited Vedam’s close ties to his family, including nieces who have never known him as a free man. The judge said Vedam “has grown as a person” and had “began to dedicate himself to enriching other people’s lives and ultimately his own through academic study and enrichment.”
A DHS lawyer argued that Vedam could still be deported based on other convictions, including allegations tied to drug distribution, and she pressed Vedam about additional arrests. In a statement emailed Thursday, the department said that “having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE’s enforcement of the federal immigration law.”
Vedam and Kinser were described as high school friends who were both 19 when Kinser disappeared in December 1980. Kinser was last seen alive after taking Vedam to buy drugs, and a van linked to Kinser was found outside his State College apartment before his remains were found more than nine months later in a sinkhole miles away. The gun used in the killing was never found, and prosecutors said the case involved a .25-caliber firearm, though jurors were told Vedam purchased a stolen gun and ammunition and were not informed about an FBI report suggesting Kinser’s head wound was too small for bullets of that size.
Vedam had been convicted twice of first-degree murder after the state prosecuted him and both trials ended in convictions. The release that announced the prosecutor’s decision not to retry him cited the passage of time and included an assessment of evidence at the time, and it said a third trial would be difficult after about 44 years. The prosecutor wrote that the FBI matched “distinguishing marks” on a bullet casing found with Kinser’s remains to a casing recovered where the gun seller said Vedam had test fired it. Prosecutors later declined to retry Vedam after a Centre County judge found that relevant ballistics evidence had not been disclosed during his two trials.
Even after the murder conviction was overturned, Vedam faced deportation risk because of his no-contest pleas to LSD distribution charges. During the Wednesday hearing, DHS lawyer Tammy Dusharm argued that Vedam did not deserve to stay in the United States, citing other offenses, including driving under the influence and theft-related incidents. Dusharm also said she found it “fairly incredible that it would appear that every single time he sold drugs, he did so to an undercover officer.”
Vedam’s lawyer, Ava Benach, indicated Thursday that she plans to seek Vedam’s release on bond and said he hopes to live with a relative in Sacramento, California. Benach also said Vedam had been offered a spot in Oregon State University’s doctoral program in applied anthropology. The DHS agency has a month to appeal the immigration judge’s decision, according to the federal process outlined in the proceedings.
This story has been corrected to show Vedam’s lawyer is a woman.