After 43 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Subramaniam “Subu” Vedam is finally free. Earlier this month, new evidence exonerated him in a case involving the murder of a former roommate.
But before his family could embrace him, Mr Vedam was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which wanted to deport him to India, a country he hadn’t been to since childhood.
Vedam’s legal team is now challenging the deportation order, and his family is determined to get him out of detention for good.
His family is now trying to cope with a new and “very different” situation, his sister Saraswati Vedam told the BBC.
Her brother has moved from a facility where he knew both inmates and guards, where he was a mentor to other inmates and where he had his own cell, to one where he shares a room with 60 men and where his history of good behaviour and mentoring is unknown.
Mr Vedam repeated the phrase to his sister and other family members after the new deportation calls: ‘I want us to focus on winning. My name has been cleared, I am no longer a prisoner, I am detained.”
Murder 1980
More than 40 years ago, Subramanian Vedam x27;five years for a drug offence as part of a plea bargain.
This punishment was to run concurrently with a life sentence.
All along, Vedam has insisted he is innocent of the murder charges. His supporters and family members have stressed that there is no physical evidence linking him to the offences.
Photo by Getty Images
The acquittal verdict
Mr Vedam had repeatedly challenged the murder conviction, and several years ago new evidence emerged that rehabilitated him.
Earlier this month, Central District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said he would not file a new lawsuit against Mr Vedam. But Mr Vedam’s family knew there was one hurdle left before his release: there was still a deportation order against him in 1988 and Mr Vedam had argued that his decades of good behaviour, three degrees and community service behind bars should count against him in immigration court.
“It’s very disappointing that we didn’t even have a minute to touch him,” Ms Vedam said. “He was held behind bars unjustly and the fact that he conducted himself with such honour, commitment and integrity would have had something to do with it.”
The possibility of deportation to India
The family stressed that Mr Vedam’s ties to India, where migration authorities believe he wants to be deported, are very weak. Although he was born there, he was brought to the US when he was nine months old.
Surviving relatives are far away, Vedam told the BBC. His family – herself, her four daughters and other