“Grave miscarriage of justice”: Attorney asks court to reconsider April Wilkens for resentencing

(TULSA, Okla.) April Wilkens’ attorney has filed a petition asking the court to reconsider and reverse its recent decision to deny her release under the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act.

Wilkens has been serving a life with parole sentence since 1998 for killing her rapist and abuser Terry Carlton. She has been denied parole four times and has been denied commutation twice.

The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, signed into law in 2024, requires courts to assess whether abuse was a substantial factor in certain crimes that have been committed. If it was, sentence reductions or resentencings are mandated.

The petition filed by Wilkens’ attorney Colleen McCarty on September 12 states, “This case presents a grave miscarriage of justice,” citing errors such as the court excluding opinion testimony from the psychiatric expert for the defense and the court not giving any weight to the domestic violence expert for the defense. 

It also points to a mandatory statute requiring the court to consider testimony from domestic violence experts when the abuse is relevant to their case. 

“Here, the court stated in its verbal order that it gave “zero weight” to the testimony of Defense expert Angela Beatty, MSW, despite her extensive qualifications and her direct application of the social-science framework of coercive control to Petitioner’s experiences throughout the course of events leading up to to the offense and the night of the offense,” the petition states.

Numerous points of evidence ranging from police reports to protective orders to witness testimony are listed in the petition as proof that domestic abuse was a substantial factor in Wilkens’ crime. 

On September 4th, Tulsa County Judge David Guten acknowledged Wilkens was a victim of domestic violence, but said he did not believe that abuse was a substantial factor in her crime.

During Wilkens’ resentencing hearing, the state’s expert Jarrod Steffan testified that it was drug use and mental illness that led to her killing her ex-fiance, not abuse.

“The Court need not find that abuse was the only factor, nor must abuse be the overriding factor,” the petition states in contrast. “The Court must simply find that the abuse was both related to and a substantial contributing factor in the crime or criminal behavior.” 

Wilkens’ lawyer said there are only two options moving forward: for the court to vacate the ruling that denied her relief or to order a new hearing that will allow all of the expert testimony to be presented. 

VNN Oklahoma will continue to follow this case and report on any updates.