Tulsa, OK – The Oklahoma Survivors Justice Coalition is outraged by the decision by Tulsa County Judge David Guten denying relief under the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act for April Wilkens, a Tulsa woman who has spent over 27 years in prison for defending herself against her violent abuser.
The Oklahoma Legislature passed the Survivors’ Act in 2024 to recognize what social science and lived experience have shown for decades: prolonged domestic violence changes the way survivors respond to threats, and the justice system must account for that reality. The law was intended to ensure survivors like Ms. Wilkens—whose abuse was a matter of public record and legislative debate—would finally receive justice.
Instead, the court has chosen to perpetuate the cycle of violence by keeping her incarcerated. This ruling is a betrayal of survivors everywhere, and it undermines the very intent of the law. The court chose to give no weight to the testimony of one of the state’s leading certified domestic violence professionals in rendering its opinion and instead rested its decision on a paid-for opinion obtained by the district attorney.
“Today, the court told every survivor in Oklahoma that their pain does not matter, that their lives are expendable, and that the protections our Legislature promised them are meaningless,” said Tracey Lyall, CEO Domestic Violence Intervention Services. “This decision is not just a legal failure—it is a nullification of the law.”
The evidence in Ms. Wilkens’s case is clear and overwhelming: years of police reports, protective orders, hospital records, and witness testimony document the brutal violence she endured at the hands of her abuser, Terry Carlton. The abuse was a direct and substantial contributing factor to the crime. That is exactly what the law requires, and exactly what April proved in court.
By denying her relief, the court has sent a chilling message that Oklahoma will continue to punish survivors for surviving. Ms. Wilkens who herself a was a proponent of the law will now have to face the appeals process—steeply stacked against criminal defendants—to try again to access sentencing relief.
The Oklahoma Survivors Justice Coalition calls on lawmakers, advocates, and community members to join us in protest. We will not rest until Ms. Wilkens is home with her family.
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