John Lennon's killer denied parole for 10th time and will remain in jail for at least two more years
On Thursday, New York prison authorities reported that the man who killed rock legend John Lennon had been denied parole for the tenth time. Without parole, the killer would be spending the rest of his life behind bars. According to the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, 63-year-old Mark David Chapman was denied parole by the state board, who told him that he would have to wait another two years before it considers his release again.
"You admittedly carefully planned and executed the murder of a world-famous person for no reason other than to gain notoriety," the panel of the state Board of Parole wrote in its denial decision. "While no one person's life is any more valuable than another's life, the fact that you chose someone who was not only a world renown person and beloved by millions, regardless of the pain and suffering you would cause to his family, friends and so many others, you demonstrated a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life and the pain and suffering of others."
“The panel has determined that your release would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society,” the three-member panel told Chapman in a letter.
Chapman is currently serving 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder of the former Beatle in 1980. He has previously claimed he was severely troubled and was seeking notoriety at the time of the shooting, reported Daily Mail. Since 2012, the murderer has been held at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, just east of Buffalo; where he is identified as inmate 81A3860. Before his current situation, he was placed in the infamous Attica prison, which is just 15 miles away from Wende.
John Lennon was returning to his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side on December 8, 1980, after ending a musical hiatus with the release of his “Double Fantasy” album. Chapman, who was lurking at his gates at the time, shot him four times in front of his wife Yoko Ono.
The rock legend's assassination shook the world of music, considering a whole generation had grown up listening to the Beatles and sent waves across the city the British-born genius had adopted as his home.
Having said that, 85-year-old Yoko Ono strongly opposed the release of her husband's killer. She has previously raised concerns about the risk Chapman poses to her, Lennon's two sons, the public, and himself. Back in 2016, during the previous parole hearing, Chapman claimed he was "trapped by the inescapable idea of killing Lennon to gain fame" and described his younger self as a "sociopath with low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts."
“I was obsessed on one thing and that was shooting him so that I could be somebody,” he said. “And 35 years later I see what a horrible decision that was and how selfish it was,” he added, according to a transcript.