Mark Chapman, the man who gunned down John Lennon in New York, could be released from jail this week — a prospect that has drawn protests and even threats against his life from the former Beatle’s fans.
Chapman, now 49, was sentenced to 20 years to life after shooting Lennon five times in the back outside the singer’s Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980.
Having served 24 years, Chapman has a parole hearing scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, a spokesperson for the State of New York Division of Parole said.
It will be the third hearing for Chapman, whose previous requests to be set free were turned down in 2000 and 2002. On the last occasion, the parole board ruled that release would ”deprecate the seriousness” of his crime.
Opposition to paroling Chapman has been led by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, who has argued that he continues to pose a risk to herself and her family.
Lennon fans have also organised an online petition calling for Chapman to remain in prison for the rest of his natural life.
”Chapman committed a heinous crime, unprovoked and without remorse. He shot to death John Lennon, a man who had signed an autograph for him only six hours earlier. He deserves to pay for this with life in prison,” the petition says.
”It is also a matter of public safety that he not be released.
He should not be free to harm anyone else. Please remember that Mark David Chapman is forty-nine years old, and John Lennon never got to be older than forty.”
Comments attached to the petition, which has garnered close to 2 000 signatures, ranged from reasoned arguments for keeping Chapman locked up, to threatening rants against his life.
”By no means whatsoever should this sick waste of oxygen and bone marrow be released for the crime he committed,” said Charles Martina of Rome, New York. ”May he rot in jail and the fiery pits of hell forever.”
John Davies, of New York, said Chapman should remain in prison ”for his own safety,” while another signatory, identified only as Kelsey, was even more direct, saying ”I’ll kill him myself if he doesn’t stay in jail”.
In 1990, Chapman expressed his remorse for having killed Lennon but his first parole request in 2000 was denied because board members said he still had the same desire for ”fame and notoriety” that led to the murder.
Two years ago, the board noted Chapman’s ”very positive” behavioural record, but added that progress in such a controlled and structured environment ”cannot predict your community behaviour” if released.
In a rare interview several years ago with the British press, Chapman, who is serving his time in Attica maximum security prison in northern New York state, said he was sure that Lennon would have forgiven him and wished his release.
”I think he would be liberal, I think he would care,” he said.
This year marked the 40th anniversary since The Beatles, on the back of their first US number one, flew into New York for a tour that took America by storm and heralded the start of the ”British invasion” of the US music charts.
Only two of the Fab Four, Lennon’s songwriting partner Paul McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr, are still alive. George Harrison died of cancer in 2001. – Sapa-AFP