Last week, Mark David Chapman was denied parole for the seventh time in the killing of John Lennon. On Wednesday, the New York State department of corrections released the transcript of his Aug. 22 parole board hearing.
Given that it's the seventh time around and much has been published about Mr. Chapman's activities leading up to, during and since the 1980 shooting, the 39-page transcript (click here if it does not appear above) contains few surprises. But even in the re-re-retelling, decades later, Mr. Chapman's straightforward account still has the power to chill.
He remembers Lennon, who signed an album for him hours before the shooting, as a “very cordial and very decent man†and talks about how he almost didn't go through with the murder:
I did try to tell myself to leave. I've got the album, take it home, show my wife, everything will be fine. But I was so compe lled to commit that murder that nothing would have dragged me away from the building.
Mr. Chapman, 57, tells the parole board, as he has before, that killing Lennon was “a very selfish act and I deeply regret it.†He speaks of his relationship with God. He mentions a miracle that occurred just a few days before, when someone in the penal system helped him and his wife, and says he is still filled with joy from it. He asserts that if released, he feels he would be a stable citizen. “I've had a lot of waves coming through my life and I know how to handle it now,†he says.
And just as before, the parole board renders its decision:
After a careful review of your record and this interview, it is the determination of this panel that, if released at this time, there is a reasonable probability that you would not live and remain at liberty without again violating the law and your release at this time is incompatible with the welfare and safety of the community.
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