(MOBILE, AL) Oct. 15 -- It was a tragedy that shocked our community. A father accused of throwing his four children off the Dauphin Island Bridge. Now, your tax dollars could pay for a trip to Vietnam for his defense.
Back in January for two weeks, crews searched for little Danny, Ryan, Hannah and Lyndsey. One by one, their bodies were pulled from the cold waters in our area. Lam Luong is facing five counts of capital murder. Now, his attorneys may take a trip to Luong's home country to help his case, on your dime. In a time when many families can't afford a vacation, Luong's attorneys argue their team should take a trip to Vietnam, on behalf of an accused murderer.
If Lam Luong is found guilty of capital murder, his defense argues, a trip to Vietnam is necessary. NBC 15 News spoke with District Attorney John Tyson about the request.
"They are required to provide what they call mitigation evidence, evidence that might tend to excuse the defendant's bad conduct," Tyson said.
The defense argues that evidence is in Lam Luong's home country of Vietnam. So, they asked Judge Charles Graddick to have taxpayers foot the bill for the trip more than 9,000 miles away. Patricia Halladay told us, "I think he's been in the states long enough. He should have some character witnesses here."
The defense is asking for $7,500 of your money. Johnny Sacco told us, "I think it's ridiculous, it's absurd. He should be denied any privileges, that's a privilege."
"Seven-five hundred dollars only gets them there for one trip, no follow up trip and getting no one to come over here," Tyson said. "Then there's the question, do we have to go to Vietnam? Do we need to bring witnesses too? Some have suggested if they go, we better go. It all gets very expensive, very quickly."
The trip might be a real possibility. In an eerily similar case 5 years ago, an Alabama court approved spending $54,000 for the defense counsel of a man accused of murdering his three children to also travel to Vietnam. Tyson says he understands why Luong's defense is asking for the trip, he's just not sure it's worth the money.
"We don't even know if these kinds of witnesses exist, so we are talking about getting over there to preserve testimony, when we don't know if they exist at all in the first place," Tyson said.
Tyson says the defense is looking to interview Luong's mother. We still awaiting Judge Graddick's decision on whether or not the trip will be funded. The case is set to go to trial in March 2009.
