Lennon’s killer must stay in jail, parole board rules
Their decision said: “Your criminal history report reflects that this is your only crime of record. However, that does not mitigate your actions.”
Ono, 85, said she feared for the safety of her and Lennon’s two sons, Julian and Sean, should Chapman be released.
Chapman was deemed by the board to be a low risk for offending again and has had a clean prison record since 1994 but the panel found, “nonetheless, none of which outweighs the gravity of your actions or the serious and senseless loss of life you have caused”.
They added: “You admittedly carefully planned and executed the murder of a world-famous person for no reason other than to gain notoriety and 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 worldrenowned 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 suffering of others.
“This fact remains a concern to this panel.”
Chapman is being held at the The assassin, his head covered by a coat, is led away by detectives Wende Correctional New York.
Before the parole board hearing, his wife Gloria Hiroko Chapman, 63, whom he married 18 months before the murder, insisted that deep down he regretted the shooting and claimed he is “finally at peace”.
“If Mark could say anything to John and Yoko now, he would say, ‘I’m sorry I caused such Facility in pain’. He would say, ‘I hope you have forgiven me’,” she said.
In his previous applications for parole, Chapman has said a minister has agreed to take him in and give him a job.
His last application in 2016 was rejected because of the “premeditated and celebrityseeking nature of the crime” and releasing him would “undermine respect for the law”.