John Lennon’s Killer To Receive Another Parole Hearing

The New York State Department of Corrections has announced that Mark David Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon, will receive another parole hearing this week, Reuters reports.

This will mark the seventh parole hearing for the 57-year-old, who was sentenced to 20 years to life for his murder of the former Beatle. Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back outside Lennon’s apartment in New York City on December 8, 1980, shortly after the musician had signed an album for him. Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and had been held at Attica state prison until May, when he was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility.

The hearings have been held every two years since 2000, and Chapman has been denied parole each time. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, has lobbied the parole board against Chapman’s release in the past, saying that she feared for her own safety as well as Lennon’s two sons, Julian and Sean Lennon.

In 2000, a member of the Correctional Association of New York told the Associated Press that “If Jesus Christ returned to earth for the sole purpose of decreeing that it would be appropriate to release Mark Chapman, the parole board wouldn’t be willing to take the political heat they would get by doing it.”