Vedam<\/a> had been taken into ICE custody.<\/p>\nOver 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.<\/p>\n
In August, a judge vacated his murder conviction after a team of attorneys revealed prosecutors had withheld potentially critical ballistics evidence during his two trials.<\/p>\n
The possibility of freedom, decades in the making, suddenly became a reality.<\/p>\n
But that quickly faded.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t out of the question that something like that would happen,\u201d Saraswathi, his sister, said, but so much time had passed, \u201cI didn\u2019t even remember that was still something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their parents brought Subu to the United States from India when he was an infant, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came as a young couple with two young kids, with a lot of hope and a good job,\u201d his sister, who was born in the US, recalled.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t fair that they didn\u2019t live to see this moment and that he had lost so many decades of his life,\u201d she told CNN through tears.<\/p>\n
DHS has continued its push for his deportation. CNN has reached out to the department for comment following Thursday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a single conviction vacated will not stop ICE\u2019s enforcement of the federal immigration law,\u201d a DHS spokesperson previously told CNN on this case. \u201cIf you break the law, you will face the consequences,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n
In February, the US Board of Immigration Appeals \u2013 the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws \u2013 determined Subu\u2019s case is an \u201cexceptional\u201d situation that warrants reopening his immigration case.<\/p>\n
The original deportation order, which was thrown out by the board, was based on Subu\u2019s now-vacated murder conviction and related drug charge, according to his attorney, Ava Benach.<\/p>\n
But later in February, a federal immigration judge denied Subu\u2019s request for bond as the proceedings play out. The judge weighed his conviction of selling LSD, which is typically considered an \u201caggravated felony,\u201d in her decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s someone who understands patience more than anything,\u201d Benach told CNN.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he sees the light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an optimism that hinges partly on his positivity throughout his years in prison, but one that does not always hold up in court.<\/p>\n
A last chance to sway the judge\u2019s decision<\/p>\n
Testifying virtually during his hearing Wednesday, Subu admitted to doing \u201cdumb things\u201d \u2013 drinking alcohol, doing drugs \u2013 when he was young, but said he is not a violent person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may have done drugs, but I\u2019ve never done anything violent. Never,\u201d he said while taking questions from Benach.<\/p>\n
He responded to his attorney\u2019s questions with straightforward answers and hints of a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, accent at times.<\/p>\n
He grew animated when talking about his overturned murder conviction and the plea deals he was offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was innocent,\u201d Subu said. \u201cThis whole thing was something like a bad dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he joined different programs, played sports and earned college degrees while incarcerated, despite the education being \u201cvery\u201d difficult to complete in that environment.<\/p>\n
When he is released from custody after more than 40 years behind bars, 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 \u2013 named after him.<\/p>\n
He never had the chance to become a husband or a father, Subu said, and wants to be an \u201cuncle nanny\u201d to his grandniece and continue his education. He said he was offered a scholarship to Oregon State University.<\/p>\n
Saraswathi testified Wednesday that she has always been close with her brother, even during the decades he was behind bars.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t there for her wedding or the birth of her daughters, but her children have grown very close to him, she said.<\/p>\n
The day he was convicted was one she will never forget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was devastating,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the worst day of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brother\u2019s deportation would have been another blow.<\/p>\n
Subu has no family left in India, he doesn\u2019t speak the language, and the time difference and physical distance would inevitably create a rift in the family\u2019s tight-knit relationship, Saraswathi testified, saying the family would have been devastated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy girls have known him almost like another parent, she said.<\/p>\n
Now, Saraswati said she\u2019s looking forward to giving her brother a hug and an opportunity to \u201creally be with him\u201d when he\u2019s free. Waiting for his release from custody after all this time feels inhumane, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to have a moment for him to be peaceful and a moment to celebrate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Withheld evidence<\/p>\n
Subu\u2019s murder conviction centered on the killing of his friend and former roommate, 19-year-old college student Thomas Kinser.<\/p>\n
On the day of Kinser\u2019s disappearance in December 1980, Subu asked him for a ride to a nearby town to buy drugs, according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\nNine months later, Kinser\u2019s 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\u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n
Subu was initially detained on drug charges while police investigated and was eventually charged with Kinser\u2019s murder. He pleaded no contest to the drug charges, court documents show.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s defense attorneys, court records show.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A little over a month later, the Centre County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced it would not seek a new trial and would drop the charges against Subu.<\/p>\n
The district attorney maintained in a statement that \u201cMr. Kinser was killed by a .25 caliber pistol. That evidence was good 40 years ago and it\u2019s good today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNevertheless, 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,\u201d Bernie Cantorna\u2019s statement continued. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to keep getting your hopes up and having them dashed,\u201d his sister, Saraswathi, told CNN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful and still imagining what it would be like to have him home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional reporting.<\/p>\n
The-CNN-Wire<\/p>\n
\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) \u2014 A man in ICE custody since his murder conviction was overturned last year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3071,26841,17152,25033,790,74793,9264,9746,4381,26886,698,3,3076,37698,25034,16554,21,75210,248714,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-561465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-crimes","11":"tag-criminal-justice","12":"tag-criminal-law","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-jury","15":"tag-justice","16":"tag-law","17":"tag-law-enforcement","18":"tag-misconduct","19":"tag-murder","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-prison","22":"tag-prosecutor","23":"tag-public-law","24":"tag-trial","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-department-of-homeland-security","27":"tag-united-states-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}