Parole Board Refuses Chapman's Plea

Who killed John Lennon? Mark David Chapman was the man who killed John Lennon and in his confession he said that a small part of him must have been the Devil when he went to the Dakota and asked the former Beatle front man for his signature. He wanted to leave then but  felt compelled to wait again for John Lennon’s return and when Lennon came along he walked up to him and shot him.

  Mark Chapman is still  in his cell in Attica Correctional Institution in Buffalo New York. Despite his exemplary disciplinary record, he has not been released. He is in solitary confinement for his own protection, because he would likely be ganged up on by inmates who were fans of the star. He must ponder what  happened twenty-five years ago. His lawyers were adamant that he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity thus committing him to a mental asylum but he was found lucid and proven guilty.
Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after firing five shots outside the apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, hitting Lennon four times in front of his wife, Yoko Ono, and others. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Chapman could recall at his parole board hearing this month that he had considered shooting Johnny Carson or Elizabeth Taylor instead, but he couldn't remember that he had also considered targeting Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and others.  The Sept. 7 interview at Attica prison ( transcripts of which were released Thursday )   was 55-year-old Mark David Chapman's sixth appearance before parole officials since he became eligible for release in 2000.
In rare media interviews, Chapman has listed Onassis among potential targets but said in the parole interview he could recall only Carson and Taylor.
"I was going through that in my mind the other day; I knew you would probably ask that," he told the panel via videoconference. "... I 've lost  memory of perhaps the other two."

As he has said in the past, he told officials he chose Lennon because the ex-Beatle was more accessible.
"I had a list of people and he was at the top of the list, and he seemed more accessible to me," he said when asked why he chose Lennon. He said Lennon's Manhattan apartment building "wasn't quite as cloistered" as spots where he could find the others.
"It wasn't about them, necessarily, it was just about me," Chapman told the parole board. "It was all about me at the time."
He continued: "If it wasn't Lennon, it could have been someone else."
According to an interview printed in People magazine in 1987, other potential targets included Lennon's former bandmate Paul McCartney, actor George C. Scott, then-Hawaii Gov. George Ariyosha and then-President Ronald Reagan.

He said that his motivation was instant notoriety but that he now realizes he "made a horrible decision to end another human being's life for reasons of selfishness."
"I felt that by killing John Lennon I would become somebody and instead of that I became a murderer and murderers are not somebodies," he told the parole board. Chapman also told the board he is in good health and works as a porter and a law library clerk. After the interview, the board was quick and unanimous in their refusal.

It sure is nice to hear that Mark is in good health. I hope he stays healthy for a long time and I hope he is refused parole every time he goes in front of that panel. He is where he belongs. If by some chance he is released it would probably be his death sentence, as many people have vowed to kill him if he is ever set free. Justice comes in many guises but at the end of the day, it is usually served.

Chapman as he is today