Oklahoma leads the nation in a devastating statistic: more than 51% of women and 46% of men will experience physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.

In 2023 alone, the state recorded 50 intimate-partner homicides and 30 murder-suicides linked to domestic abuse.

On average, over 24,000 police reports of domestic abuse are filed here every year — numbers experts say understate the reality. I have witnessed the devastating impact of domestic violence on the mental and physical health of the abused.

It was this impact and crisis that spurred lawmakers to pass the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act in 2024.

The law gives judges discretion to revisit sentences of people — mostly women — who acted in self-defense after enduring long-term abuse. Yet the v

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