A woman convicted of shooting and killing her husband after allegedly suffering years of abuse wants women to know they can get help without resorting to violence.

Women are sometimes “hesitant to speak out and ask for help,” Mary Winkler told NBC’s “Today” show this morning. But, she said, “someone will believe you.”

Winkler, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the March 2006 killing of her preacher husband, Matthew Winkler, served less than a year behind bars. Just two years later, in 2008, she regained full custody of her three daughters. But the Tennessee woman said justice was served.

“I felt like it was a very fair verdict,” she said. That’s because Winkler, 36, says her husband raped and abused her for years before she finally snapped and shot him in the back while he slept.

Mary Winkler and her late husband’s parents embraced Friday after a judge gave the mother permanent custody of her three daughters.

Winkler said she’s reconciled with the children’s paternal grandparents, who had fought to keep the girls away from her after she was convicted of killing their father two years ago. [video]

Mary Winkler has gotten her three daughters back.

The girls had been living with their paternal grandparents since Winkler killed her husband Matthew in 2006. Now it appears the bitter custody battle is coming to a close.

Mary Winkler and the parents of the husband she killed were back in court Friday, arguing over custody of her three daughters and information about the trust fund established for the children.

Winkler was convicted early last year of voluntary manslaughter in the March 2006 shooting death of her minister husband, Matthew Winkler.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to modify or overturn a lower court’s ruling allowing Mary Winkler, convicted of killing her minister husband, visitation rights with the couple’s three daughters.

The parents of Matthew Winkler have been fighting for permanent custody of their three granddaughters, ages 10, 8 and 2, since April. Mary Winkler was convicted April 19 of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Matthew Winkler in March 2006.

Mary Winkler’s attorneys say they’re working to reunite her with her children as quickly as possible following an appeals court ruling on Tuesday that removed a barrier to her having supervised visits with them.

An appeals court Friday blocked a supervised visit between Mary Winkler and her children scheduled for Saturday.

Mary Winkler will be able to visit her three daughters again, starting a week from Saturday, after more than a year with no physical contact with them.

At a hearing last week, Winkler asked for private visits with the children, but Judge Ron Harmon refused after listening to testimony on her mental health and the youngsters’ mixed feelings about her.

After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back was released on Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN.

Winkler had been charged with first-degree murder, but jurors convicted her of the lesser charge. She testified that her husband hit and kicked her, emotionally abused her, forced her to look at pornography and demanded sex she considered unnatural.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied Mary Winkler’s request to proceed with efforts in juvenile court to regain custody of her three daughters.

NBC Dateline will take a look at “The Preacher’s Wife” at 9 tonight on WAFF TV, featuring a story on Mary Winkler, who was found guilty of murdering her husband last month.