Oklahoma Survivor's Act clears House, offers new hope to criminalized survivors

(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) Criminalized survivors of domestic violence are another step closer to a new chance at freedom. 

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act (Senate Bill 1470) on Wednesday, with 84 yeas and just 3 nays. 

Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of domestic violence homicides in the country as well as one of the highest rates of female incarceration in the country. Advocates say Oklahoma women should not have to choose between dying and life in prison. 

The bill would permit courts to reduce sentences for domestic violence survivors for crimes they committed relating to that abuse.

The bill also allows for retroactivity, so incarcerated domestic violence survivors could appeal for a lesser sentence if they meet the requirements.

April Wilkens, a woman who has been serving a life sentence for over 20 years for killing her abuser told VNN she was overjoyed by the bill’s passage, which she got to watch live in the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center library.  

“Cheers rippled through the prison as news spread here that the Oklahoma Survivors' Act passed,” Wilkens said. “People were hugging, high-fiving, hoorahing, and happy-dancing all over the place. Hope is in bloom for survivors behind bars, and we are ecstatic!” 

Wilkens’s side of the story was relatively unknown for two decades, aside from her niece Amanda Ross keeping it alive outside of prison walls through her “Free April Wilkens” blog. 

After Ross reached out to VNN in 2021, VNN’s Brittany Harlow was able to report Wilkens’s side of the story for the first time through a series of news articles and videos beginning later that year. 

During the VNN series, Harlow reached out to attorney Colleen McCarty for legal expertise on cases likes Wilkens’s. 

McCarty later went on to found Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and launch a podcast about her case, raising awareness and lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation to help criminalized survivors like Wilkens. 

After a similar bill failed last year, the OK Survivor Justice Coalition pushed the return of the criminalized survivor bill to this legislative session. 

The bill now heads to Governor Kevin Stitt’s desk. To tell Governor Stitt what to do with it, call (405) 521-2342. 

To find more coverage of the Wilkens case, search “April Wilkens” in the VNN app.