A man who spent 43 years in prison before his conviction was overturned now faces deportation
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After waiting more than four decades to clear his name in a friend’s 1980 killing, Subramanyam Vedam was set to walk free from a Pennsylvania prison this month.
A judge in August threw out a murder conviction against Vedam in the death of Thomas Kinser, finding new ballistics evidence that prosecutors hadn’t disclosed during his two trials. A lawyer called Vedam the victim of a “profound injustice.”
But as his sister prepared to bring him home on Oct. 3, the thin, white-haired Vedam was instead taken into federal custody over a 1999 deportation order. The 64-year-old, who legally came to the U.S. from India when he was 9 months old, now faces another daunting legal fight.
Amid the Trump Administration’s focus on mass deportations, Vedam’s lawyers must persuade an immigration court that a 1980s drug conviction should be outweighed by the years he wrongly spent in prison. For a time, immigration law allowed people who had reformed their lives to seek such waivers. Vedam never pursued it then because of the murder conviction.
“He was someone who’s suffered a profound injustice,” said immigration lawyer Ava Benach. “(And) those 43 years aren’t a blank slate. He lived a remarkable experience in prison.”
http://apnews.com/article/exoneration-india-penn-state-murder-immigration-9bf5f64cac770e82866501e013fce2f1?
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