Yukon court reinstates appeal of man convicted of 2017 murder near Whitehorse

A Quesnel, B.C. man serving a life sentence for a 2017 Yukon murder will be able to resume fighting his conviction after a panel of appeal court judges agreed to reinstate his case. 

Edward James Penner was convicted of first-degree murder for killing 25-year-old Adam Cormack following a two-week-long jury trial in Whitehorse in 2019. The Crown told jurors that Penner brought Cormack out to a trail near a gravel pit in Ibex Valley and shot him in the head. Penner was a drug dealer and the murder, according to one witness, was apparently fuelled by a dispute over a missing gun. 

Penner, who was 22 at the time of his conviction, filed an appeal shortly afterwards. However, in the following months and years, he fired his lawyer, attended only one of several meetings about his case and did not reply to court correspondence.

A panel of Yukon appeal court judges, following an application by the Crown, dismissed Penner's appeal in May 2023 for "want of prosecution," writing that he had "refused to advance his appeal and to participate in the significant efforts that have been made to assist him in that regard."

Penner, however, applied to have his appeal reinstated in September, which Yukon Court of Appeal Chief Justice Leonard Marchand granted in an oral decision Thursday.

Marchand, whose decision was supported by Justices G. Bruce Butler and Sheila MacPherson, said a number of circumstances justified the reinstatement. 

Penner, Marchand stated, had long experienced mental health issues that were exacerbated by prison conditions following his conviction, which included periods of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He apparently wasn't aware that his appeal had even been dismissed, Marchand continued, having called the Yukon Legal Services Society earlier this year to ask for an update. The society, commonly referred to as legal aid, reappointed a lawyer to Penner in July, who then began the appeal reinstatement process.

Marchand said the amount of time that had passed between the appeal being dismissed and the reinstatement application was "not inordinate." He also said there was "no question" that Penner had always intended to pursue an appeal, that another lawyer had previously identified three potential grounds for appeal, and that Penner was currently serving the most severe sentence under Canadian law. 

The Crown did not oppose the reinstatement.

Hearing dates for the actual appeal have yet to be set.