We bring the justice system into the light
In 2022, our inaugural season was about the Oklahoma case of April Wilkens. April was a victim of domestic violence that killed her attacker in what she claimed was self-defense. After a contentious trial, a jury sentenced her to life in prison. We take a closer look and what we found was shocking.
In Season 2, we flip April's case around and ask: if women are getting such long sentences for fighting back, what are the men getting for committing the actual abuse? Listen Now
For Season 3, currently in production, we are investigating an unsolved double homicide from Bache, Oklahoma to see how its connected to violence against women in Oklahoma, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic, and the broader context of public safety in our state.
Praise for Panic Button:
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I love and admire the work these women are doing to shed light on the social injustices happing in our country and our hometowns. A well-researched, thoughtful, fascinating podcast.
– Apple Podcasts Review
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Listen to the first episode and you will be invested in this case. This podcast is so well done. The attorneys are extremely intelligent and invested. They clearly explain the gravity of this case. As a 3rd generation Tulsan the details and description of Tulsa was on point. I’m thankful that a podcast like this exists. Understanding the history of the law, how the legal process works and explaining the side of an abused woman. Listen to it you won’t regret it.
– Apple Podcasts Review
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Local attorneys, Colleen McCarty and Leslie Briggs draw us into what could be a plot taken right out of a thriller script, but the story is true and ripped right out of the headlines.
– 102.3 KRMG Radio Tulsa
THE PANIC
BUTTON TEAM
Trevor aaronson
Trevor Aaronson is a contributing writer for The Intercept and a 2020 ASU Future Security Fellow at New America. He is also author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism and the creator and host of documentary podcasts including “Alphabet Boys” and “American ISIS.”
His TED Talk, “How this FBI strategy is actually creating U.S.-based terrorists,” has been viewed more than 1 million times and translated into 23 languages. “Informants,” a documentary he reported and produced, screened at the London Investigative Film Festival and was broadcast worldwide in three languages.
A two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards, Aaronson has won dozens of national and regional journalism awards for investigative reporting, feature writing and data journalism, including the Molly National Journalism Prize and the Data Journalism Award. Aaronson has discussed his reporting on national programs including CBS This Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered, This American Life and On the Media.
Aaronson co-founded the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting in 2010. Investigations he edited spurred changes to law and policy and won honors from the National Headliner Awards, the National Awards for Education Reporting, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Green Eyeshade Awards.
COLLEEN McCARTY, ESQ.
Colleen McCarty is an attorney and life-long Oklahoman. In 2017, McCarty went back to the University of Tulsa College of Law to attend law school (JD ‘20). She served as an Articles Submission Editor on the Tulsa Law Review.
Since becoming licensed to practice law in Oklahoma, she has served as Policy Counsel and Deputy Director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. In Spring of 2022, McCarty worked with Appleseed Foundation Executive Director, Benet Magnuson, to open Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, where she now serves as Executive Director. She has worked across both sides of the aisle in the Oklahoma legislature on criminal justice policy, and was instrumental in passing medical parole reform in 2020 (SB 320).
McCarty assisted in formulating a proposal for a felony classification & sentencing system, as introduced in SB 1646 (2022) and later in HB 1792 (2023). McCarty has been one of the key advocates pushing for survivor justice reform, which materialized in the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, SB 1835 (2024)—a measure that passed the Oklahoma Senate 46-0 and the Oklahoma House 86-4.
She is admitted to practice in Oklahoma District Court, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
SEASON ONE
THE APRIL WILKENS CASE
Terry Carlton is found shot dead in his basement in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When the police arrive, his long-time on-again-off-again fiance, April Wilkens, answers the door. "I shot him, he's in the basement," she says.
But this wasn't exactly an open and shut case. Terry had raped April mere hours before the shooting. It was while he was violating her that he said he was going to kill her and twisted her neck to break it. During the life and death struggle for her life, April knows she had no options--it wasn't a feeling, she had no options.
SEASON TWO
OPERATION:WILDFIRE
In Season 2, Tulsa Attorneys Leslie Briggs and Colleen McCarty try to unwind a tangled web of domestic violence survivors and their stories. The hook? They’ve all been victimized by the same man. Listen as they discover who he is, how he’s escaped accountability for over three decades, and what his survivors decided to do about it.
If the monster who hurt you was still out there? How far would you go to warn others? And what would you do if the justice system was no longer on your side?
