Mark David Chapman, the man who killed ex-Beatle John Lennon 20 years ago, was denied release recently in his first appearance before a state parole board.
The three-member board interviewed Chapman for about 50 minutes Tuesday morning at Attica state prison. About four hours later, Chapman was given the board's one-page determination beginning with the words 'parole is denied.'
The board called Chapman's killing of Lennon 'calculated and unprovoked' and it described how he pumped four hollow-point bullets into Lennon's body with a .38 special revolver. In addition to being one of the most famous musicians in the world, Lennon was also a 'husband and a father of two young children,' the board said.
'Your most vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged,' the parole board said. 'During your parole hearing, this panel noted your continued interest in maintaining your notoriety.'
Releasing Chapman at this time would 'deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for the law,' the board concluded.
Chapman, 45, is serving 20 years to life in Attica for slaying Lennon outside the rock star's Manhattan apartment in 1980 as Lennon and his wife returned from a late-night recording session. The board's decision means Chapman will be held for two more years until he is eligible for another parole hearing in October 2002.
Chapman was expected to claim at the hearing that he has become a born-again Christian who should be paroled so he can spread a message of love and forgiveness. In Attica, Chapman is a clerk in the law library and has been disciplined for only minor infractions.
The parole board noted that Chapman has an 'exemplary disciplinary record' while in state prison. But it added that because he has served his time in special protective housing, 'you have been unable to avail yourself of anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming.'
The parole board hearing Chapman's case was presided over by R. Guy Vizzie. Its other two members were W. William Smith Jr. and Daniel J. Doyle.
Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, had written a letter to the parole board about Chapman's hearing but her spokesman Eliot Mintz would not reveal what it said. Ono had no immediate comment on the board's ruling.
Inmate advocate Robert Gangi said the parole board's decision was no surprise. Gangi, who heads the Correctional Association of New York, said those who committed violent crimes in New York are almost never granted release on their initial parole hearing. The notoriety of Chapman's crime just worsened his chances, he said.
'The fact that it was John Lennon ... eliminates any hope for even a slim chance for Chapman being released,' Gangi said.  'The parole board is not going to risk the political heat by releasing Chapman.'
He said Chapman has 'no hope anytime in the near future' for release.
'Conceivably far into the future, when he's an old man and the immediacy of his crime has softened and people who were alive during the (killing) are no longer on the planet,' Chapman may have a chance at getting parole, Gangi said.