Judge rules April Wilkens to remain in prison until September hearing

(TULSA, Okla.) Room 413 was so packed at the Tulsa County Courthouse on Tuesday that people were turned away, forced to wait in the halls to learn if April Wilkens would be released from prison this week. 

Tuesday’s hearing related to the petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus by Wilkens’ legal team, who argued that Wilkens is serving an illegal sentence due to her being incarcerated for 27 years. In effect since last year, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act now provides a resentencing of up to 25 years in prison for those sentenced to life with parole who can prove their domestic abuse and show it was a significant factor in their crime.

Wilkens was sentenced to life in prison with parole after killing her abuser and rapist Terry Carlton in 1998. 

Related Story: Two decades later, a woman sentenced to life for killing her abuser still fights for freedom | Verified News Network

Though Wilkens’s case was the first case to be filed under the OSA back in August of last year and it was greenlit for a hearing in November, the hearing date had yet to be set as of Tuesday’s court date. 

During her argument for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Wilkens’s attorney Colleen McCarty said Wilkens’s hearing has been unreasonably delayed as the Tulsa DA’s office has requested months to prepare for it, that “the state is stalling and denying justice”, and “every day in custody is a fresh violation of her rights”. 

Assistant District Attorney Megan Hilborn said McCarty’s argument that Wilkens should be released was “putting the cart before the horse.” 

Hilborn based her argument on Ex Parte Tidwell, saying that a writ of habeas corpus only relates to jurisdictional authority. Since Wilkens’s legal team could not prove the court lacked jurisdiction to convict or imprison her in 1999, a habeas petition couldn’t get her out of prison today.

Hillborn also blamed the hearing delay on Wilkens’s legal team, saying they were waiting to receive an expert witness report from them before a hearing date could be set. 

Wilkens’s niece Amanda Ross has worked to raise awareness about her aunt’s case since 2016, primarily through her “Free April Wilkens” blog.

"I was disappointed she wasn't released today but we are at least getting a resentencing hearing date set, which we didn't have before,” Ross said. “The DA seemed to be dragging it out setting that date previously. It seems like Kunzweiler's saying he needs a lot of time to prepare because he wasn't there for April's trial. But the other Tulsa OSA cases have set resentencing dates and he wasn't there for those trials either. What he's saying doesn't make sense."

Judge David Guten ultimately denied the defense’s argument for writ and release, saying “we need to have this hearing first” and without further delay, unless the delay is reasonable.

A status hearing for the case has since been set for August 13, 2025. 

Wilkens’s OSA sentence hearing has since been set for September 3, 2025.