00:00This man spent 43 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, only to be detained again
00:05moments after being declared innocent.
00:07His name is Subramanyam Subu Vedam, an India-born man who moved to the US as a baby, just nine
00:12months old.
00:13America is the only home he has ever known.
00:16In 1983, he was convicted of murdering his college roommate, even though there was no
00:20weapon, no motive and no eyewitnesses.
00:23The prosecution's case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence.
00:27Seconds later, new documents revealed what his lawyers had long suspected.
00:32Prosecutors had hidden an FBI report that proved the bullet found in the victim's skull couldn't
00:36have come from the gun they accused him of using.
00:39That report completely dismantled the state's case.
00:53In October 2025, after 43 years behind bars, a Pennsylvania judge vacated the conviction.
00:59Subu was not only wrongfully convicted and has always maintained his innocence, considering
01:05his unbelievable record in prison.
01:07They chose to both not appeal the decision and to dismiss the charges.
01:11They don't view him as any kind of danger to the community and he had an outstanding record.
01:15Subu Vedam finally walked free.
01:17But his freedom lasted only minutes.
01:19Waiting outside were US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
01:22They immediately detained him under a decades-old deportation order linked to a teenage drug conviction.
01:27A youthful mistake from the early 1980s.
01:30Now 64, Vedam faces deportation to India, a country he has never seen since infancy.
01:35His parents are gone.
01:36His sister and nieces are the only family he has left.
01:39All of them in the US.
01:40During his 43 years of prison, Vedam earned three degrees, magna cum laude, an MBA with
01:45a perfect 4.0 GPA and even started literacy programs for other inmates.
01:49His lawyer has now filed an emergency motion to stop the deportation, calling it an injustice
02:07layered upon another.
02:08Subu's family says deporting him at this age to a place he has never known would be like
02:14sentencing him all over again.
02:15After 43 years behind bars, freedom is still just out of reach for Subramaniam Subu Vedam.
02:20He, more than anybody else, knows that sometimes things don't make sense.
02:25You have to just stay the course and keep hoping that truth and justice and compassion and kindness
02:31will win.
02:32No.
02:33No.
02:34No.
02:35No.
02:36No.
02:37No.
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