One of the ways I am trying to help fight the political nightmare we are all facing is by volunteering. I currently volunteer for the progressive organizations Indivisible and Central PA United. Central PA United is a classic grassroots political organization that currently focuses on two main issues: affordable housing and criminal justice.
On the criminal justice side, one of our projects was advocating for a man falsely accused of murder.
After more than four decades behind bars, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam has finally been released, his conviction for the 1980 murder near State College, Pa., of his former roommate, Thomas “Tom” Kinser, vacated in August 2025. Judge Jonathan Grine ruled that Vedam had been denied due process: prosecutors withheld key evidence and failed to correct false testimony. Crucially, evidence from an FBI report was suppressed—measurements of the bullet hole in Kinser’s skull showed the fatal shot could not have come from the .25 caliber gun Vedam was accused of using. The newly revealed information, hidden from the defense for decades, likely would have changed the jury’s decision.
Vedam has always maintained his innocence. No murder weapon was ever found, and much of the prosecution’s case rested on circumstantial evidence. His release after 42 years marks the end of one of Pennsylvania’s longest wrongful imprisonment cases and highlights the devastating consequences of prosecutorial misconduct. Many see his story as a sobering reminder of how fragile justice can be when truth is buried, and how long it can take to correct an error that should never have happened. Vedam’s freedom is both a personal victory and a call for deep reform in the criminal justice system. Those of us at Central PA United were thrilled.
That is, until ICE showed up. As soon as he was released from prison on Friday, ICE took him into custody.
“We are disappointed that Subu has been taken into ICE custody,” Saraswathi Vedam, Subu Vedam’s sister, said in a statement. “This immigration matter is a remnant of Subu’s original murder conviction which has now been overturned. Since that wrongful conviction has been officially vacated, and the charges against Subu have been dismissed, we have asked the immigration court to re-open the case and account for the fact that Subu has been exonerated.”
Vedam has lived in the United States since he was 9 months old. His parents immigrated to the United States from India in 1956 for his father’s postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State. After a family death, they moved back to India for a short time. Vedem was born during this brief period, before they returned to America.
Vedem, now 64, was taken to an ICE processing center. Since ICE is the Dollar Store Gestapo, this is not exactly an encouraging development. Imagine the joy of getting out of jail for something you never did, only to have this happen.
Such is the America we live in now.
The last word goes to The Boss.