APN Photo; Getty ImagesUPDATE: After interviewing Chapman, New York State's Division of Parole once again denied his request for release. He won't be eligible to go before the board again until 2012.
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All Yoko Ono needs is love a rejection.
Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's killer, is set to go before a New York parole board today in his latest bid for freedom—three months before the 30th anniversary of the former Beatle's death.
Chapman, 55, will field questions from three parole board members sometime in the next few days.
The deranged fan murdered Lennon in front of his Manhattan apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980. Ono has vowed to fight Chapman's attempts to be let out of Attica prison, citing the nightmare she and Lennon's son, Sean, would face with him out on the streets.
This would mark the sixth time Chapman has come up for parole, having been sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder. His most recent request was denied two years ago, following rejections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 despite an exemplary prison record.
In its rejections, the parole board noted that releasing him would cause undue suffering to Ono, who witnessed the shooting and watched Lennon die. The panelists also noted that Chapman's continued pattern of granting media interviews showed a willingness to keep up his notoriety and thus releasing him could undermine respect for the law.
(Originally published Sept. 7, 2010, at 8:02 a.m. PT)
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