Where is the humanity? Man wrongfully imprisoned for 42 years released - only to be arrested by ICE

“The first duty of society is justice” - Alexander Hamilton.

An innocent man is freed

In 1983, Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam was convicted of killing his friend, Thomas Kinser, in 1980. For the next 42 years, he maintained his innocence. In 2025, Pennsylvania authorities agreed he was indeed not guilty after evidence surfaced that the original prosecutors had concealed evidence eviscerating the state's case. The Miami Herald reports:

Vedam's legal odyssey began in 1982, when he was arrested for the 1980 murder of his friend, 19-year-old Thomas Kinser, in Centre County. Prosecutors argued that Subu had shot Kinser with a .25-caliber pistol — a weapon that was never recovered — and based their case largely on circumstantial evidence. He was initially arrested in 1982 and convicted the following year, being finally sentenced to life without parole.

And re-arrested

It would not be the last time Vedam suffered official inhumanity. On Oct. 3, 2025, as he was leaving Huntingdon State Prison, ICE was waiting. Acting on a decades-old deportation order, they arrested him. Subu is now back in lockup at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an ICE facility in central PA.

Where is America's humanity?

The law permits prosecutorial discretion. Sometimes, in the interests of justice, a crime is not prosecuted. A father stealing bread to feed his starving family is granted mercy. But Trump's ICE is indifferent to justice. They look with approval at Javert's dogged pursuit of Valjean.

For justification, ICE cited a "legacy deportation order" dating back to the 1980s. The order was based not only on the murder verdict but also on an earlier drug conviction. Before Vedam's arrest for murder, he had pled guilty at age 19 to intent to distribute LSD. Although that conviction carried its own immigration consequences, Subu, who was born in India but arrived in the United States when he was 9 months old, was never deported because he was serving a life sentence.

Vedam's family described his drug bust as a "youthful mistake." Whatever the details of that youthful offense, it pales beside the state’s decades-long injustice. Vedam has already spent 42 years in jail. Isn't that enough punishment for whatever crimes he may have committed? Is there no quality of mercy in ICE officials' souls?

Vedam's family thinks he has suffered enough. They say,

"This immigration issue is a remnant of Subu's original case. Since that wrongful conviction has now been officially vacated and all charges against Subu have been dismissed, we have asked the immigration court to reopen the case and consider the fact that Subu has been exonerated. Our family continues to wait — and long for the day we can finally be together with him again."

A history of inhumanity

That day will not soon come. The current administration is led by a man who, in 1989, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to demand that New York reinstate the death penalty in the aftermath of the rape and assault of Trisha Meili, a woman who had been jogging in Central Park.

Note: Trump, who doesn’t like to spend his own money, paid $85,000 ($216,000 in today’s dollars) to run the ad.

The NYPD arrested six men. Five confessed to the crime. The sixth was let off the hook because he pleaded guilty to committing another crime at the time.

The so-called Central Park Five were later exonerated. In 2002, the Manhattan DA, Robert Morgenthau, learned that another man, Matias Reyes, had confessed to the crime. Tests proved it was Reyes' DNA on the victim. An investigation revealed that the NYPD had coerced the Five's confessions.

But then, as now, Trump showed utter indifference to the humanity of Black and brown men. In 2016, ignoring the facts, he said, "They admitted they were guilty….The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous." The settlement cost NYC $41 million. Trump kept up his campaign of retribution. Speaking at the White House in 2019, he said, "You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt."

More of the same

In 2025, Trump and his administration's mindless attack dogs are still abusing the unfortunate, shredding decency, and ripping up the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike