TULSA — A woman hoping the Oklahoma Survivors' Act would shorten her prison sentence has been turned down in court, dealing a blow to advocates who had been pushing for allowing evidence of domestic abuse from partners to be taken into account and possibly reducing the length of terms for some inmates.

April Wilkens was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing of her ex-fiance and has served 27 years of her life sentence. Attorneys had asked the courts to reconsider evidence in her case, arguing that she should be released under the Oklahoma Survivors' Act, which was passed in 2024 and allows people convicted of a crime to seek sentencing relief if they can prove that domestic violence or sexual abuse was a major contributing factor to their offense.

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