States are starting to offer reduced prison time to survivors of domestic violence
Colleen McCarty co-founded the Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition. (Photo by Josh New)
Shortly after opening the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice in 2022, Colleen McCarty came across the case of April Wilkens.
Wilkens had been incarcerated for nearly 25 years for shooting and killing her former fiancé in Tulsa. She claimed self-defense, saying he had beaten and sexually assaulted her before she got ahold of his gun. She had filed for protective orders against him and reported abuse to the police many times.
McCarty wanted to help Wilkens, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and others like her whose abuse played a role in their crimes.
According to one study of women in Oklahoma’s prisons, 66% were abused by a partner the year before they were incarcerated. The state has a new law that allows domestic violence survivors to seek shorter sentences. Three months after Oklahoma Gov. J. Kevin Stitt signed the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act into law in May, McCarty filed for retroactive sentencing relief in Wilkens’ case.
She co-founded the Oklahoma Survivor Justice Coalition, which advocated for the law. Under the act, survivors who are convicted of most crimes, including first-degree murder, can introduce evidence of their abuse at a sentencing mitigation hearing. Incarcerated survivors also can apply for resentencing if they can prove their convictions were related to their abuse.
“It’s the most well-documented case that we have of all of the cases we’ve seen,” McCarty says, adding that Wilkens’ request includes more than 400 pages of evidence. “It’s kind of like, if she doesn’t make it, then nobody’s going to make it.”
Providing a model
Oklahoma is one of only a handful of states to pass laws that provide sentencing relief specifically for domestic violence survivors.
“We trace the beginning of this trend to the resentencing movement more broadly, to what we often call second-look sentencing, which is an idea that there are many categories of individuals who may have been criminalized, sentenced to long sentences and who are deserving of a second day in court,” says Liz Komar, sentencing reform counsel at the Sentencing Project.
Domestic violence survivors are especially deserving, Komar says. They often face biases and barriers—including police officers and prosecutors who hold inaccurate ideas about victims, laws that punish self-defense, and the mental impact of trauma—that result in decades of incarceration, according to Komar.
In 2019, New York passed the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which Komar considers a model for the rest of the country. As with Oklahoma’s law, it affords survivors the opportunity to receive a lower sentence either at the time of their sentencing or retroactively, based on their history of abuse.
To receive relief, survivors must prove they experienced “substantial physical, sexual or psychological abuse” by a member of their family or household; the abuse was a “significant contributing factor” to their offense; and the sentence that was imposed or would be imposed is “unduly harsh.” While the New York law applies to violent felonies, it excludes first-degree murder.
Among other critical components, the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act doesn’t require the victim of the survivor’s offense to be the abuser, says Kate Mogulescu, the director of the Survivors Justice Project, a collective of lawyers and advocates that helps implement the law. She has seen many cases involving survivors who were compelled to participate in robberies and homicides.
The act “recognizes there are situations where survivors become involved in or commit criminal offenses not just against their abuser, but in many other instances where domestic violence is still the significant contributing factor,” Mogulescu says.
So far, 69 women and men have been resentenced after filing applications under the law, according to the Survivors Justice Project. Nearly half of their cases involved victims who were not the people perpetrating the abuse.
That was one point of contention between advocates and the District Attorney Association of the State of New York, which opposed the law at the time. Prosecutors argued it didn’t consider the rights of crime victims who did not harm the defendants.
Michael McMahon, the current president of the association, says New York prosecutors support the intent of the law and its goal of considering trauma experienced by domestic violence survivors. He also suggests the time is right to reexamine and possibly clarify aspects of the law to ensure justice for all victims and their families.
“These are difficult cases that involve situations and relationships that must be reviewed carefully to successfully weigh the abuse suffered, level of intimate relationships and seriousness of crime,” says McMahon, who is also the Richmond County district attorney.
Expanding relief efforts
McCarty heard about New York’s survivor sentencing law on Believe Her, a podcast that chronicled the case of Nikki Addimando, who shot and killed her abusive partner in 2017. She was convicted of second-degree murder, and her original sentence of 19 years to life in prison was reduced to 7½ years under the law in 2021. She was released in January 2024.
“I was like, what if we can do something similar here?” McCarty says. She adds that while the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act received bipartisan support from legislators, it faced its share of challenges.
The governor vetoed an earlier version of the law, and the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association supported the veto. Advocates later revised the measure, adding language that says survivors convicted of violent crimes must prove the victim abused or trafficked them or that their abuser coerced them to commit the crime.
Steve Kunzweiler, the Tulsa County district attorney, still has concerns about the law, including that it contains an “overbroad definition” of who can apply for sentencing relief.
“There are going to be some examples of very extreme conduct that don’t fit with what I would call the typical survivor,” he says. “Somebody who was a victimizer themselves is going to try and claim that their conduct was influenced by their prior victimization.”
Kunzweiler references Robert and Michael Bever, teenage brothers who murdered their parents and three younger siblings in Oklahoma in 2015. The Bevers, who are serving life in prison, have said they suffered abuse in their home.
Oklahoma is the first Republican-led state to pass a survivor sentencing law, and from McCarty’s perspective, there is a reason it resonates with residents.
“They very much believe in self-defense. They very much believe in fighting back. They very much believe in ‘stand your ground,’” she says. “And they were shocked to learn those concepts didn’t really apply to survivors of domestic violence.”
Illinois and California have taken up similar efforts for survivors, and several other states now are considering reforms.
In 2015, Illinois adopted a novel law that would allow survivors of intimate partner violence to petition for a new sentence if their history of abuse was not previously considered by the court. However, because of technical issues in the law, few women were successful.
“Less than five people were even granted hearings—a hearing on the motion, not even a resentencing hearing—and their cases were pretty horrific,” says Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, one of the bill’s sponsors.
In 2023, Cassidy helped pass legislation that expands sentencing relief to all survivors of gender-based violence, which includes trafficking and stalking. And last year, she helped pass another law that allows survivors who took plea deals to apply for reduced sentences.
“Obviously, I would like to see this expanded far and wide,” Cassidy, who is also a survivor, says of efforts in other states.
This story was originally published in the February-March 2025 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: “Sentencing Relief: States offer reduced prison time to survivors of domestic violence.”
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