John Lennon’s killer denied parole for seventh time

John Lennon’s murderer has been denied parole for a seventh time, New York State’s Department of Corrections has announced.

Mark Chapman, 57, shot and killed John Lennon, 40, in New York City on the night of 8 December 1980. He was sentenced in 1981 to 20 years to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

He has been given a parole hearing every two years since 2000 and has been turned down each time. The transcript of this latest hearing, before a three-member board on Wednesday 22 August 2012, has not yet been released. The board members were Sally Thompson, Joseph Crangle and Marc Coppola.

Despite your positive efforts while incarcerated, your release at this time would greatly undermine respect for the law and tend to trivialise the tragic loss of life which you caused as a result of this heinous, unprovoked, violent, cold and calculated crime.

The panel notes your good conduct, program achievements, educational accomplishments, positive presentation, remorse, risk and needs assessment, letters of support, significant opposition to your release and all other statutory factors were considered. However, parole shall not be granted for good conduct and program completions alone.

Chapman will be eligible for another parole hearing in two years’ time.

In May Chapman was transferred from the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York to the nearby Wende Correctional Facility in the town of Alden in Erie County, New York. Both are maximum security buildings.

He is kept in a single-person cell, according to corrections spokeswoman Carole Claren-Weaver, and is allowed out three hours per day. According to corrections officials he has been held in protective custody with a good disciplinary record.

Earlier this week Chapman was granted a request to be allowed conjugal visits with his wife Gloria Hiroko Chapman, whom he married in 1979.

He had applied to the ‘family reunion’ program while an inmate at Attica, but had to reapply after being transferred to Wende. The program allows Chapman to be allowed to spend up to 48 hours with his wife on prison grounds, in a trailer which has a kitchenette, living room and two bedrooms, but no cameras or guards.