TONIGHT AT 10PM: A closer look at battered woman syndrome self-defense
TULSA, Okla. (KFOR) - Tuesday night at 10 p.m. News 4 is launching a new series of reports about justice in Oklahoma.
Our state ranks among the worst in the nation for women.
We have the lowest score in the nation for women's healthcare and the highest number of domestic violence crimes against women.
Oklahoma also has the second highest rate of incarceration for women in the world.
News 4's Ali Meyer is taking an in-depth look at a murder case from 1998. The accused is a woman who told police she killed her abusive ex-boyfriend in self-defense.
April Wilkens was had a Masters Degree from Northwestern University in Chicago. Smart and beautiful, she ran her family's prosthetics business.
Wilkens was the last person you'd expect to get tangled up in a combustible relationship with an abusive boyfriend, addicted drugs and eventually charged with murder.
News 4's Ali Meyer uncovered the 1998 police interrogation video where she told detectives, "When I shot him, I cried. It was like shooting myself."
She told Tulsa Police she killed her abuser to save her own life.
According to court documents, Wilkens claimed she was raped, handcuffed, held hostage, beaten and forced to do drugs on the night she shot and killed Terry Carlton.
"I would question anyone else, if you were in that position, what choice would you make?' said YWCA's Angela Beatty, a domestic violence expert. "I think if people took time to think about that, that lots of us could end up in a similar situation as April Wilkins."
This year, the Oklahoma legislature is taking a closer look at the impact of domestic violence.
The 1998 case of April Wilkens is once against bubbling to the surface.
"It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback or an armchair quarterback and try and say, Well somebody must have gotten it wrong," said Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler. "But I would have to say this case was about as thoroughly litigated as any domestic assault battered woman case that I have seen."
Tuesday at 10 p.m. a prison interview with convicted murderer, April Wilkens, and a shocking audio recording never played in a court.