her family, her friends. >> reporter: their cause, to bring one mother, nikki addimando, home. >> nikkihould not move through life as a felon, she's not a felon, she's a criminalized survivor. >> reporter: criminalized for what nikki says was violent abuse, physical and sexual, by the father of her two kids. she shot and killed him, she says, after he threatened her life. she's been behind bars ever since. >> she is a wanted member of our community. there is an entire group of people who are willing to welcome her home. >> how do we allow women to experience violence and not adequately protect them? how do we choose to put them in jail, away from their children, when they are forced to defend themselves? >> reporter: for over a year now, her supporters have been urging new york governor kathy hochul to grant nikki clemency. the clock ticking more urgently since commutations are typically issued around the holidays. >> the governor has an opportunity to speak directly to victims through nikki. it's on her desk. she can rise to the occasion. >> reporter: nikki herself realizing the gravit

speaking on camera for the first time nikki addimando's message for the one person who could send her to her? >> my kids. >> the phrase that the punishment should fit the crime. what do you think about your punishment? >> i live with this for the rest of my life. knowing the pain that i've caused so many people. >> reporter: she's already spent five years behind bars convicted of killing christopher grover, her then boyfriend and father of her two children. prosecutors argued it was premeditated murder. that he was laying down defenseless when she shot him at close range. nikki maintains it was kill or be killed by a man she says who violently abused her both physically and sexually for years. >> nikki had an unprecedented amount of documentation. she had pictures of injuries. she had bruising on her ribs, she had bruising on her face. >> reporter: her case, investigated for a hit podcast "believe her" making national headlines sparking outamong those who say victims of domestic violence are repeatedly criminalized for defending their lives against their abusers. >> there are so many