Two separate courts have ordered US immigration authorities to halt the deportation of Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, a 64-year-old Indian-origin man from Pennsylvania who spent more than four decades in prison for a murder conviction that was later overturned.Vedam, is a legal permanent resident who has lived in the United States since he was nine months old. He is currently detained at a short-term holding centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is equipped with an airstrip for deportations. Vedam’s lawyers said he was transferred there from central Pennsylvania last week.On Thursday, an immigration judge issued a stay on his deportation until the Board of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case, a process that could take several months. Vedam’s lawyers also received a stay from a US District Court in Pennsylvania, though that case may now be on hold pending the immigration court ruling.“We’re also hopeful that Board of Immigration Appeals will ultimately agree that Subu’s deportation would represent another untenable injustice,” Subramanyam’s sister, Saraswathi told news agency AP.“A man who not only endured 43 years in a maximum-security prison for a crime he didn’t commit, but has also lived in the U.S. since he was 9-months-old,” he added.

What was the case

Vedam was convicted of the 1980 murder of his former classmate and roommate, Tom Kinser, in State College, Pennsylvania. He maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983, Vedam also received a concurrent sentence for a drug-related offence committed at the age of 20. His appeals spanned decades, and his murder conviction was finally overturned in October 2025, making him the longest-incarcerated person in Pennsylvania to be exonerated. He was released from state prison on 3 October, only to be immediately taken into immigration custody.The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to deport Vedam on the basis of his decades-old no-contest plea to charges of LSD delivery. Vedam’s lawyers argue that the four decades he spent wrongfully behind bars, during which he earned degrees and tutored fellow inmates, should outweigh the decades-old drug conviction.Vedam was born in India while his parents were visiting for a family funeral but grew up entirely in Pennsylvania, where his father taught at Penn State. His family says he has no meaningful ties to India and does not speak Hindi.