Lennon’s killer denied parole again – 39 years after he was sentenced

JOHN LENNON’S killer has been denied parole for an 11th time and will remain behind bars for at least another two years, a representative for the New York parole board told the PA news agency.

Mark David Chapman, 65, shot dead the former Beatle outside Lennon’s Manhattan apartment in December 1980. A year later he was sentenced to serve a 20- yeartolife sentence at Wende Correctional Facility, in New York. The New York State Board of Parole said Chapman’s parole was denied following an interview on August 19. He is next scheduled to appear before the board in 2022. The reasons for the denial were not immediately available.

Lennon, pictured, was 40 when he was shot four times outside the Dakota apartment building in the Upper West Side on December 8 1980, as wife Yoko Ono looked on. Chapman, who is said to have admitted the murder was motivated by a thirst for notoriety, was first eligible for parole in 2000.

In previous hearings, he told how he was still receiving anguished letters about the pain he caused by murdering a revered musician.

Ono, who married Lennon in 1969, had previously opposed Chapman’s release, saying she feared for her safety and that of Lennon’s two sons, Julian and Sean, should he be freed. Chapman had been a fan of the

Beatles, but was incensed by Lennon’s lifestyle and public statements, such as his remark about the Beatles being “more popular than Jesus” and the lyrics of his later songs God and Imagine.

Chapman refused requests for press interviews during his first six years in prison but he later said that he regretted the murder and did not want to give the impression that he killed Lennon for fame and notoriety.

Under New York state law, he is required to have a parole hearing every two years from the year his 20 year minimum sentence ended. Since that time, a threemember board has denied Chapman parole ten times.

Before Chapman’s first parole hearing, Yoko Ono sent a letter to the board requesting that he not be released from prison.

Chapman had no criminal convictions prior to his trip to New York City to kill Lennon.