The Attorney General of Saskatchewan is requesting an appeal be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Bernie Herman, the former Prince Albert Mountie convicted of fatally shooting his lover in 2021. On May 11, 2021, Braden Herman was shot and killed in a park on the outskirts of Prince Albert. His naked body was later found in the area with a gunshot wound to the chest. Despite sharing the same surname, the pair were not related. In its application, the Crown is asking the Supreme Court to determine if Herman’s manslaughter conviction should be upheld rather than the second-degree murder charge he previously faced, and whether a new trial should be ordered. In a complex series of legal proceedings, Herman was initially charged with first-degree murder in connection to Braden’s death, before eventually being convicted of manslaughter in June 2024. Both the Crown and Herman appealed the conviction, while Herman also appealed his sentence. Both of those appeals were denied. However, a Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision in April did reduce Herman’s sentence from 11 to seven years, two months and nine days. A central factor in the appeal has to do with the defence of provocation – specifically Herman’s arguments that he believed Braden was going to attack him just prior to the fatal shooting. The appeal decision found there was an “air of reality” to the provocation defence. In its application to the Supreme Court, the Crown argues Braden’s actions did not qualify as an assault, attempted assault, threats or any of the other actions that meet the legal threshold for the provocation defence. “A possible future assault is not that,” the application read. “It is not an offence under the Code; it is conjecture about an offence that has not yet occurred.”
