HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A judge cleared the way Thursday for an Indian citizen to be potentially released from prison. The Indian citizen was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his four-decade prison sentence was overturned last year on a murder conviction in Pennsylvania.
The decision came after a four-hour hearing in which Subramanyam Vedam insisted he did not shoot Thomas Kinser in 1980 and was questioned by Department of Homeland Security attorneys. Vidan participated in the hearing remotely from the Mosanon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, Pa., on Wednesday.
“I was young and stupid and did a lot of stupid things,” Widam said. The federal government wants to deport the 64-year-old to India, which he left as an infant in 1962.
U.S. Immigration Judge Adam Panopoulos said Widam proved he had indeed recovered and posed no danger to the public. He cited Widam’s efforts to increase prisoner literacy and his close relationship with his family, including nieces who never knew him as a free man.
The judge said Thursday that Widam “had grown as a person” and “became committed to enriching the lives of others, and ultimately his own life, through academic study and enriching his own life.”
A Department of Homeland Security attorney said he could still be deported for convictions unrelated to drug distribution.
Vedam, also known as Subu, was born in Mumbai, India and brought to the United States when he was 9 months old. He grew up in State College, Pennsylvania, where his father was a physics professor. He was a legal permanent resident of the United States and was days away from naturalization when he was arrested.
Homeland Security has one month to appeal
The Department of Homeland Security has one month to appeal. Widam’s attorney said he planned to seek bail for his client.
His attorney, Ava Benach, said Widam hopes to live with a relative in Sacramento, Calif., and has earned a degree from Oregon State University’s doctoral program in applied anthropology.
Late last year, State University prosecutors declined to retry Vidan after a Center County judge determined prosecutors failed to disclose relevant ballistics evidence during Vidan’s two trials. Vedam was about to be released in October when ICE agents took him into custody and attempted to deport him.
Widam told Panopoulos that he rejected a plea bargain offer during his first trial and that prosecutors made a similar offer during his retrial. Both ended up with first-degree murder charges.
“I have never stopped saying that I am innocent of this charge,” Widam told the judge. He has been in prison since March 31, 1982.
Vedam and Kinser were high school friends and both were 19 when Kinser disappeared. He was last alive in December 1980 after taking Vedam to buy drugs. Kinser’s van was found outside his State College apartment, and more than nine months later, hikers found his remains in a sinkhole miles away. He was shot in the head. The gun was never found.
Weddam was arrested on drug charges and eventually charged and convicted of Kanazawa’s murder.
Prosecutor rejects third trial
Jurors were told Vedam purchased a stolen .25-caliber gun and ammunition around the time Kinser disappeared, but were unaware of an FBI report indicating the wound to Kinser’s head was too small for a bullet of that size.
In announcing the decision not to retry Vedam’s case on Oct. 2, Center County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said it was “a compelling circumstantial case” but that a third trial would be difficult because of the passage of time. Cantona cited “the reality that for a murder committed by a 19-year-old, 44 years is a sufficient sentence.”
Prosecutors noted that Widam initially denied purchasing or possessing a .25-caliber handgun, then testified at a second trial that he purchased the gun after Kanazawa disappeared. Cantona also wrote that the FBI matched “identifying markings” on shell casings found in Kanazawa’s remains to shell casings recovered from what the gun seller Werdam said was a test firing site.
Although Kanazawa was cleared of murder, Widam’s no contest plea to LSD distribution charges put him at risk of deportation. During Wednesday’s hearing, Department of Homeland Security attorney Tammy Dusharm pressed Widam on issues related to his other arrests, including DUI and theft.
Ducharme told the judge that Widam should not remain in the United States because he was “using and dealing drugs, driving under the influence, and committing crimes related to theft.” She also mentioned Weddam’s statement that he sold LSD only a handful of times.
“I find it unbelievable that every time he sold drugs, he did so to an undercover officer,” Ducharme said.
