A State College man who has long claimed his innocence, despite spending the last four decades behind bars for first-degree murder, is poised to soon receive a new evidentiary hearing in an ongoing effort to clear his name.
Centre County’s top judge ruled Tuesday that Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam and his defense team can move forward with two of their claims — including new evidence unveiled last fall that suggests the size of the bullet hole in the victim’s skull might not match the caliber of the gun Vedam was accused of using.
Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine dismissed five other claims Tuesday, mostly on the basis they did not contain new information and could’ve been litigated by Vedam’s past counsel. For example, Vedam’s current defense team argued the commonwealth suppressed a number of earlier witness transcripts — but Grine pointed out that Vedam’s counsel in 1982 would’ve already been aware of that issue. (To gain a new hearing, new information must come to light, with some exceptions.)
But, even before Tuesday’s ruling, Vedam’s current legal team characterized the newly discovered size of the bullet hole as being critical to a potential new hearing in the 1982 killing of Thomas Kinser. That, and an accompanying claim involving the bullet, can now be formally addressed in a hearing.
The date of that evidentiary hearing is still to be determined. But a formal meeting between the judge and attorneys, which will help decide the length of the evidentiary hearing, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Oct. 15 in the judge’s chambers.
The judge’s ruling Tuesday came 71 days after Vedam’s counsel argued for a new trial in front of packed courtroom. If Vedam succeeds in reversing his conviction, he would become the longest-serving inmate in Pennsylvania history to be exonerated.
He has been imprisoned for 41 years, seven months and 23 days as of Tuesday. The record now is 40 years, three months and four days.
How we got here
The origins of the case began nearly 44 years ago.
According to court documents and past news reports, a 19-year-old Boalsburg man — Thomas Kinser — borrowed his parents’ van in December 1980 to give Vedam a ride to Lewistown so he could buy drugs.
No one saw Kinser alive afterward. About nine months later, two hikers found Kinser’s decomposing remains in a Harris Township sinkhole. A forensic pathologist determined Kinser died of a gunshot to the head.
No weapon was ever recovered at the scene.
Vedam was found guilty of first-degree murder in February 1983, largely on circumstantial evidence, following a five-day trial in front of an all-white jury.
The state Superior Court ruled two years later that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction, but reversed it on the grounds that the judge improperly allowed testimony about Vedam’s prior misconduct.
He was again convicted of first-degree murder in February 1988 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Several of his following appeals were rejected by statewide appeals courts.
New life was then breathed into the case in September 2021, when Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna voluntarily gave Vedam’s defense team full access to more than 3,000 pages of documents. In reviewing those documents, Vedam’s team said it uncovered new information that warranted a third trial.
Cantorna’s office has pushed back in court filings, repeatedly referring to the new claims as “meritless.”
“Nothing raised by Petitioner undermines confidence in the verdict, or gives rise to a reasonable probability that there could be a different outcome,” they wrote.
‘New’ evidence
At the forefront of the defense team’s claims is an allegation that an FBI report found the size of the bullet wound in Kinser’s head did not match the caliber of the gun Vedam was accused of using to carry out the killing.
Grine ruled Tuesday that Vedam’s defense team will be allowed to address, in an evidentiary hearing, both the size of the bullet hole and an accompanying “Full FBI report” that wasn’t disclosed to the defense until this past January.
Centre County prosecutors initially argued a .25-caliber bullet killed Kinser. And they tied Vedam to the murder, in part, by relying on a younger acquaintance who said he sold Vedam a .25-caliber firearm.
However, based on the new evidence, Vedam’s legal team has argued it was “physically impossible” for the killing to have been carried out by such large-caliber ammunition. And at least one forensics expert agrees.
Ann H. Ross, a North Carolina State faculty member who has a doctorate in anthropology, wrote a report filed in August in which she expressed the belief a .22-caliber bullet killed Kinser. She is one of only 70 board-certified forensic anthropologists in the United States.
“She only rarely testifies on behalf of criminal defendants, but does get involved when she sees forensic science distorted in harmful, egregious ways, as happened in this case,” lead defense lawyer Gopal Balachandran said in August. “Most important, her testimony will show what our filings have indicated all along — Subu is innocent because a .25 caliber handgun could not have been the murder weapon.”
At the time, Ross’ report did not persuade Centre County prosecutors.
Vedam, 63, has spent about two-thirds of his life at Huntingdon state prison.
CDT reporter Bret Pallotto contributed to this report
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