Home & Sexual Violence
Home abuse survivor who was inspiration for brand new reduced-sentencing regulation loses bid for launch
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 underneath a brand new regulation 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 underneath a brand new regulation 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, Decide David Guten of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, dominated Thursday.
Publications with protection embrace the Oklahoman, Fox 23 Information, KOCO, KFOR, KTUL and Public Radio Tulsa.
The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, signed into regulation in Might 2024, requires courts to contemplate proof of abuse in sentencing mitigation hearings after conviction and in resentencing hearings after incarceration.
The regulation requires survivors reminiscent of 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 mentioned she killed her former fiance, Terry Carlton, after being handcuffed and sexually assaulted, KOCO beforehand reported.
Wilkens’ lawyer Colleen McCarty launched proof that her shopper killed Carlton due to a sample of abuse that included beatings, rapes, monetary extortion, psychological abuse and compelled drug use. McCarty is the manager director of the Oklahoma Appleseed Middle for Regulation & Justice.
However a prosecution witness, forensic psychologist Jarod Steffan, testified that the first components 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 explanation for the crime, Guten mentioned. He additionally rejected the testimony of an professional witness who testified for Wilkens, describing the witness as “an advocate, not an professional.”
McCarty instructed 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 mentioned: “Over two days of hearings, the courtroom heard testimony from a sitting federal choose who represented Ms. Wilkens in a protecting order in opposition to her abuser, from a former worker of the sufferer’s household who spoke concerning the abuser’s predatory conduct, and from one in every of Oklahoma’s foremost specialists 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 solely on the state’s professional.
“This ruling is a profound setback—not just for April however for the motion of survivors throughout Oklahoma who believed this regulation may 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 really seen, heard and given the prospect for justice they deserve.”
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