Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition Press Release
Tulsa County, OK — Today, the Oklahoma courts denied relief to Erica Harrison under the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, ruling that because she shot her rapist, she did not qualify as a “sexual partner” under the statute. The court claimed that a rape victim cannot be considered a partner, citing dictionary definitions of “partner” and “intimate” and concluding that only consensual relationships fall within the scope of the law.
This ruling is a grave miscarriage of justice. The Survivors’ Act was championed and passed with the clear intent to protect survivors of abuse—including those subjected to sexual violence. By excluding rape victims from its protections, the court has effectively punished them twice: once at the hands of their abusers, and again at the hands of a legal system that was designed to deliver relief.
“Erica Harrison was drugged, unconscious, and raped,” said the Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition. “To suggest that the absence of her consent disqualifies her from protection under the Survivors’ Act is to twist both the spirit and the letter of the law. It is a cruel distortion of justice to say that because she was a victim—and not a so-called ‘partner’—she is unworthy of relief.”
Today’s ruling compounds that injustice. The opposition to the case is being led by Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler, the same DA exposed by HuffPost for coercing survivors into signing away their rights under the Act to secure plea deals. And who has shown a level of hostility to survivors of domestic violence that is in sharp contrast to the release of Lisa Moss under the Survivors’ Act in January of this year.
The Coalition reaffirms that the Survivors’ Act was intended to provide sentencing relief to survivors of rape. We will not allow this narrow and harmful interpretation to stand unchallenged. We call on Oklahoma lawmakers to act immediately to clarify that rape victims are unquestionably included under the statute, and we stand in unwavering solidarity with Ms. Harrison and all survivors who this decision has retraumatized.
Survivors deserve justice. Not word games. Not technicalities. Justice.
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