Lennon Killer Denied Parole

OCTOBER 5--For the third time in four years, John Lennon's killer was today denied parole. A New York State Parole Commission panel voted unanimously to keep Mark David Chapman, 49, locked up at the Attica Correctional Facility, where he is serving a sentence of 20 years to life for the 1980 killing. In its decision, the three-member panel cited Chapman's "extreme malicious intent" in the shooting of the ex-Beatle and noted that Chapman had "subjected the wife of the victim to monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime." In opposing Chapman's release, Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, resubmitted a letter she drafted when the killer first petitioned for release in 2000. Below you will find the parole commission decision released late this afternoon. Chapman, who was first denied release in October 2000 and then again in 2002, is eligible again for a parole review in October 2006. (1 page)