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Home abuse survivor who was inspiration for brand new reduced-sentencing legislation loses bid for launch
By Debra Cassens Weiss
September 8, 2025, 11:16 am CDT
A 55-year-old home abuse survivor convicted for the 1998 homicide of her former fiance has misplaced her bid for freedom beneath a brand new legislation that she partly impressed. (Picture from Shutterstock)
A 55-year-old home abuse survivor convicted for the 1998 homicide of her former fiance has misplaced her bid for freedom beneath a brand new legislation that she partly impressed.
April Wilkens, who was sentenced to life in jail with the opportunity of parole, should serve the remainder of her sentence, Choose David Guten of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, dominated Thursday.
Publications with protection embody the Oklahoman, Fox 23 Information, KOCO, KFOR, KTUL and Public Radio Tulsa.
The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, signed into legislation in Might 2024, requires courts to think about proof of abuse in sentencing mitigation hearings after conviction and in resentencing hearings after incarceration.
The legislation requires survivors similar to Wilkens to show by clear and convincing proof that their abuse was associated to their offense and a considerable contributing issue to the crime. She stated she killed her former fiance, Terry Carlton, after being handcuffed and sexually assaulted, KOCO beforehand reported.
Wilkens’ lawyer Colleen McCarty launched proof that her consumer killed Carlton due to a sample of abuse that included beatings, rapes, monetary extortion, psychological abuse and compelled drug use. McCarty is the chief director of the Oklahoma Appleseed Middle for Regulation & Justice.
However a prosecution witness, forensic psychologist Jarod Steffan, testified that the first elements within the killing had been psychological sickness and drug use.
Guten agreed with prosecutors. Though Wilkens was a home abuse survivor, her lawyer had not proven that it was the rationale for the crime, Guten stated. He additionally rejected the testimony of an knowledgeable witness who testified for Wilkens, describing the witness as “an advocate, not an knowledgeable.”
McCarty informed Public Radio Tulsa that she “will pursue each avenue of reduction” for Wilkens, and, “We aren’t abandoning her now, identical to we haven’t for the final three years.”
In an announcement posted to Instagram, McCarty stated: “Over two days of hearings, the courtroom heard testimony from a sitting federal decide who represented Ms. Wilkens in a protecting order towards her abuser, from a former worker of the sufferer’s household who spoke in regards to the abuser’s predatory conduct, and from considered one of Oklahoma’s foremost consultants on coercive management and home violence. Regardless of this highly effective proof, the courtroom selected to not credit score testimony from the protection and as a substitute relied totally on the state’s knowledgeable.
“This ruling is a profound setback—not just for April however for the motion of survivors throughout Oklahoma who believed this legislation might present a significant path to justice. … April’s case reveals simply how a lot work stays. We is not going to cease till survivors are actually seen, heard and given the possibility for justice they deserve.”
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