Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon outside his New York City home back in 1980. He was up for parole in 2000, but despite numerous attempts, he has remained in prison. Now, Chapman has been denied parole for the 14th time.
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As reported by The Associated Press (AP), Champan appeared before a parole board on August 27. He was denied parole for the 14th time.
Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the fatal shooting of the former Beatle, which occurred on December 8, 1980. Earlier in the day, Lennon had signed Chapman’s copy of his then-newly released album, Double Fantasy.
Then, when Lennon and Yoko Ono returned home, Chapman shot him outside their Upper West Side apartment. Lennon was 40 years old.
‘I Knew It Was Evil
In a previous parole board hearing, which ocurred in 2022, Champan appeared remorseful, saying that he sought fame at all costs.
“I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong,” Champan said at the time, as per the AP. “I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.”
He also expressed this sentiment in his previous 2020 parole board hearing.
“I assassinated him .. because he was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory. Very selfish,” Chapman said.
He also said at the time that he deserved the death penalty for killing Lennon. He added, “When you knowingly plot someone’s murder and know it’s wrong and you do it for yourself, that’s a death penalty right there, in my opinion.”
Champan also mentioned Yoko Ono in his 2020 parole hearing, saying he continuously thinks about the pain he inflicted on her.
“I just want her to know that she knows her husband like no one else and knows the kind of man he was. I didn’t,” Champan said, adding that Lennon had been kind to him.
In a 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, Ono said that she finds thinking about Champan “very, very difficult.”
“One thing I think is that he did it once, he could do it again, to somebody else,” Ono said of Chapman. “It could be me, it could be Sean, it could be anybody, so there is that concern.”
Mark David Chapman is scheduled to appear before a parole board again in February 27. He will be 71 years old.