His murder conviction was overturned after 40 years. His next fight is to stay in the US

(CNN) — It was 3 in the morning when Saraswathi Vedam was awoken by the call she’d been waiting over 40 years for: Her brother’s murder conviction was being overturned.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.

Saraswathi was across the world giving lectures as a professor in New Zealand when she heard the news. But over a month later, when it came time to pick her brother up from the Pennsylvania prison where he was being held, his older sister received another shocking piece of news.

“He was gone,” she said.

Subramanyam Vedam had been taken into ICE custody.

After hearing testimony Wednesday, an immigration judge could decide Thursday whether the 64-year-old, known as “Subu,” will be deported to a country he hasn’t been to since he was an infant, or whether he will be allowed to stay in the United States after another judge ruled he hadn’t been given a fair murder trial.

The case is unfolding at a moment of high tension across the nation’s immigration system as a White House push to reshape the country has made the odds of overcoming deportation tougher.

Saraswathi testified at her brother’s hearing Wednesday, before waiting with cautious optimism to learn his fate, just as she has for the past 44 years.

An overturned conviction

Over 40 years ago, Subu was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a murder he maintains he never committed. He also pleaded no contest to charges of possessing LSD with the intent to distribute it.

In August 2025, a judge vacated his murder conviction after a team of attorneys revealed prosecutors had withheld potentially critical ballistics evidence during his two trials.

The possibility of freedom, decades in the making, suddenly became a reality.

But that quickly faded.

A day after his charges were dropped, he was taken into ICE custody on a deportation order that never went away from the drug-related conviction.

“It wasn’t out of the question that something like that would happen,” Saraswathi, his sister, said, but so much time had passed, “I didn’t even remember that was still something.”

Their parents brought Subu to the United States from India when he was an infant, she said.

“They came as a young couple with two young kids, with a lot of hope and a good job,” his sister, who was born in the US, recalled.

Their parents visited him in prison weekly when they were still alive, she said. And they were the first people Saraswathi thought of when she got the late-night phone call that his conviction was being vacated.

“It wasn’t fair that they didn’t live to see this moment and that he had lost so many decades of his life,” she told CNN through tears.

The Department of Homeland Security has continued its push for his deportation.

“Having a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE’s enforcement of the federal immigration law,” a DHS spokesperson previously told CNN on this case. “If you break the law, you will face the consequences,” the statement continued.

In February, the US Board of Immigration Appeals – the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws – determined Subu’s case is an “exceptional” situation that warrants re-opening his immigration case.

The original deportation order, which was thrown out by the board, was based on Subu’s now-vacated murder conviction and related drug charge, according to his attorney, Ava Benach.

But later in February, a federal immigration judge denied Subu’s request for bond as the proceedings play out. The judge weighed his conviction of selling LSD, which is typically considered an “aggravated felony,” in her decision.

“He’s someone who understands patience more than anything,” Benach told CNN.

“I think he sees the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

It’s an optimism that hinges partly on his positivity throughout his years in prison, but one that does not always hold up in court.

A last chance to sway the judge’s decision

Testifying virtually during his hearing Wednesday, Subu admitted to doing “dumb things” – drinking alcohol, doing drugs – when he was young, but said he is not a violent person.

“I may have done drugs, but I’ve never done anything violent. Never,” he said while taking questions from Benach.

He responded to his attorney’s questions with straightforward answers and hints of a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, accent at times.

He grew animated when talking about his overturned murder conviction and the plea deals he was offered.

“I knew I was innocent,” Subu said. “This whole thing was something like a bad dream.”

He said he joined different programs, played sports and earned college degrees while incarcerated, despite the education being “very” difficult to complete in that environment.

If he is released from custody after more than 40 years, Subu said he plans to move to Sacramento to live with one of his nieces and her family, including an 18-month-old girl whose middle name is Subu – named after him.

He never had the chance to become a husband or a father, Subu said, and wants to be an “uncle nanny” to his grandniece and continue his education. He said he was offered a scholarship to Oregon State University.

Saraswathi testified Wednesday that she has always been close with her brother, even during the decades he was behind bars.

He wasn’t there for her wedding or the birth of her daughters, but her children have grown very close to him, she said.

The day he was convicted was one she will never forget.

“It was devastating,” she said. “It was the worst day of my life.”

Her brother’s deportation would be another blow.

Subu has no family left in India, he doesn’t speak the language, and the time difference and physical distance would inevitably create a rift in the family’s tight-knit relationship, Saraswathi testified.

“All of us would be devastated,” she said. “My girls have known him almost like another parent.”

Withheld evidence

Subu’s murder conviction centered on the killing of his friend and former roommate, 19-year-old college student Thomas Kinser.

On the day of Kinser’s disappearance in December 1980, Subu asked him for a ride to a nearby town to buy drugs, according to The Associated Press.

Nine months later, Kinser’s remains were found in a sinkhole with a bullet hole in his skull, according to court documents. Though no weapon was found, a .25-caliber bullet was found inside Kinser’s shirt.

Subu was initially detained on drug charges while police investigated and was eventually charged with Kinser’s murder. He pleaded no contest to the drug charges, court documents show.

While a jury heard testimony that Subu bought a .25-caliber gun during his trial, they were never shown an FBI report that suggested Kinser’s bullet wound was too small to have been inflicted by that gun. Despite prosecutors knowing the specific measurements of the wound, they excluded them from the report given to Subu’s defense attorneys, court records show.

That FBI report was among the crucial discoveries made by a team of attorneys in 2022, which eventually led to a judge ruling in late August 2025 that he had not been given a fair trial, entitling him to a new one.

A little over a month later, the Centre County District Attorney’s Office announced it would not seek a new trial and would drop the charges against Subu.

The district attorney maintained in a statement that “Mr. Kinser was killed by a .25 caliber pistol. That evidence was good 40 years ago and it’s good today.”

“Nevertheless, the facts remain that trying a case 44 years later will be extremely difficult and the probabilities of success are not what they would have been,” Bernie Cantorna’s statement continued. “He has had 44 years of confinement with no recorded issues, that lead one to conclude that he does not pose a threat to the public going forward.”

The final part of Cantorna’s statement could be crucial as a judge considers whether Subu can remain in the United States.

“It’s hard to keep getting your hopes up and having them dashed,” his sister, Saraswathi, told CNN.

“We’re hopeful and still imagining what it would be like to have him home,” she said.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.