Irecently sat in a courtroom and watched District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler conduct a hearing before Judge David Guten against April Wilkens.

Wilkens is a 55-year-old vegan grandmother who has already spent 27 years in prison for killing her abuser.

She came before the court under Oklahoma’s Survivors’ Act — a law designed to recognize that sometimes, survivors of prolonged violence act in ways that cannot be understood outside the context of their abuse.

This resentencing law should’ve all but guaranteed release for Wilkens.

What I saw broke my heart and enraged me.

Kunzweiler stood in that courtroom and declared that people who use drugs aren’t victims. That people living with mental illness aren’t victims. That survivors whose lives are messy, complicated or imperfect somehow forfe

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