After serving 43 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, Subramanyam Subu Vedam was finally free. New evidence had exonerated him earlier this month of the murder of his former roommate.
But before he could reach his family's arms, Mr Vedam was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who want to deport him to India - a country he has not lived in since he was a baby.
Now, Mr Vedam's legal team is fighting a deportation order and his family is determined to get him out of custody, for good.
His family are now working to navigate a new and very different situation, his sister Saraswathi Vedam told the BBC. Her brother has gone from a facility where he knew inmates and guards alike, where he mentored fellow inmates, and where he had his own cell, to a facility where he shares a room with 60 men and where his history of good behaviour and mentorship is unknown.
Mr Vedam has been repeating one message to his sister and other family members in the wake of the new situation: I want us to focus on the win. My name has been cleared, I'm no longer a prisoner, I'm a detainee.
The 1980 murder
More than 40 years ago, Mr Vedam was convicted of murdering his once-roommate Tom Kinser, a 19-year-old college student. Kinser's body was found nine months after he went missing in a wooded area with a bullet wound in his skull. On the day of Kinser's disappearance, Mr Vedam had asked him for a ride. While the vehicle Kinser drove was returned to its usual spot, no one saw it being returned.
Mr Vedam was charged with Kinser's murder. He was denied bail, had his passport and green card seized by authorities and was labelled a foreigner likely to flee. Two years later he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Throughout that time, Mr Vedam maintained his innocence on the murder charges.
His supporters and family members stressed there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime.
Mr Vedam's exoneration
Mr Vedam repeatedly appealed the murder conviction, and new evidence in the case finally surfaced, recently prompting the Centre County District Attorney to drop charges against him. However, his family was aware of a daunting obstacle that remained: a 1988 deportation order stemming from his previous murder and drug convictions.
When ICE took him into custody, it cited this order as the rationale for its actions.
While he was exonerated for the murder charge, his drug conviction still stands. Mr Vedam's family is appealing to the immigration court to consider his decades of good behavior and contributions while incarcerated.
Potential deportation to India
ICE intends to deport Mr Vedam to India, despite him moving to the US as a child. His family highlights that his connection to India is tenuous as he has only distant relatives there, and all immediate family members reside in the US and Canada. His lawyer argues that deporting him to a country where he has few ties would be an additional injustice for a man who has already endured so much. The family asserts that Vedam's life should not be further disrupted by this potential deportation.
