Opinion ID: 2756888
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hrdy’s affidavit

Text: {¶ 36} The affidavit of Thomas Hrdy, the mitigation specialist engaged by Herring’s attorneys prior to the trial, discussed his employment and his meeting with counsel in preparing for Herring’s mitigation: I believe that I was first contacted by the trial attorneys Mr. Van Brocklin and Mr. Zena around the first week of August, 1997. As it turned out, this did not allow adequate time for me to collect the necessary records for a full investigation of the case, such as school records and medical records. I met with the attorneys only once, at our initial meeting. I do not know what information the attorneys collected. I do not know if the attorneys followed up on my suggestion to bring a psychologist in to evaluate Willie. I do not know these things because the attorneys did not share the information with me, and we did not have subsequent meetings after our initial one. {¶ 37} In his affidavit, Hrdy stated that he had interviewed Herring four times and Herring’s mother once. He did not interview any other family members. Hrdy stated that due to time constraints, he was unable to complete extensive interview research. He did not recall “the specific attempts to collect specific records, such as Ohio Department of Youth Services or Mahoning County Human Services.” Hrdy added: “I felt like before I knew it, I was over my head in terms of time necessary to complete the investigation. I do not recall if I told trial counsel that I was running out of time.” {¶ 38} Hrdy said that he had provided mitigation services “in two or three other capital cases” prior to Herring’s case. He concluded: “Looking back now 10 January Term, 2014 on the work I did for the Herring case, I feel that I did a substandard job of mitigation investigation. This is primarily due to the fact that I underestimated the amount of time which was needed to contact all of the necessary mitigation witnesses and locate all the necessary resources and records.”