John Lennon killer Chapman denied parole

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: MSNBC

BUFFALO, N.Y. — John Lennon's killer was again denied parole in New York, nearly 30 years after gunning down the ex-Beatle outside the musician's New York City apartment building.

A parole board decided not to release Mark David Chapman after interviewing him Tuesday at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

It was Chapman's sixth appearance before the board since becoming eligible for parole in 2000. He will be eligible again in 2012.

Chapman, 55, had been scheduled to appear last month, but the hearing was postponed by parole officials, who said at the time they were awaiting additional information. They did not elaborate.

Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39037888/ns/today-entertainment/

[regnaD kciN]

1. All we are saying....

...is "lock the bastard up until he dies!"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. There are just some people who should never be put back in society

Manson's one, Chapman's another.

30 seconds out on the street and he'd be a walking trophy, a badge of honor for the first bastard to take him down.

His crime was pre-meditated. He shot and killed a man outside of his home, in front of his wife. Let the pig rot.

[onehandle]

2. Shot five times in the back with a handgun. nt

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. My brother-in-law was en route to my apartment with a pizza when it was announced

I wasn't watching "Monday Night Football." I didn't hear the news from Howard Cosell. I was watching "Little House On The Prairie," and when they broke in and announce it, I heard a knock on the door about five minutes later. It was my brother-in-law, holding the pizza, and we just looked at each other. Didn't say a word. He grabbed some plates for the pizza, I popped open a couple of cold ones, and we just sat down and ate pizza and drank beer and maybe a few minutes later we found the words to say how we were feeling but I'll be damned if I can remember what those words were.

This fucker should never, never, never taste freedom again. NEVER.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Lennon's murder was as much a shock to some of us as were the Kennedy

and Dr. King assassinations.
You just had to be there, so to speak.
I remember my 2 room mates and I sitting on the carpet in front of the tv, too stunned to speak,for hours, just watching the tv coverage.
And we were in our 30's. Not "moony teenagers."
For several years it was painful to hear his songs.

A lot of people do not seem to realize the cumulative impact on our generation of the wars, murders, mayhem,
over the last 40 years.
There were terrible national losses of those who represented "the good," there were betrayals of ideals,
over and over again.

It shaped who we are today, and why there is such an emphatic response of "no parole" for the person who destroyed John Lennon.

[dflprincess]

22. Yes it was

I went to bed right before the news broke and didn't find out until I opened my apartment door the next morning and saw the headline on my paper screaming up at me. It really didn't register at first and when it did there seemed to be some sad inevitability to it - given all the other murders our generation had dealt with. I felt pretty much the same way when Wellstone died...like anyone who speaks up is doomed.

Chapman should never be released.

[cyr330]

5. They guy is/was sick. . .

Is he still a danger?
Has he paid his dues?
Is he still sick?

I don't know much about the guy, but I remember when it happened. I DO know quite a bit about American Justice or the wish for revenge, as it usually is. Is there anything to punish a sick guy for, or is he receiving treatment? Will he ever get out? What's the plan?

If he's still a danger, then by all means, keep him confined for everybody's safety.
But if he's still in jail all these years later just for the sake of keeping him locked up, is there really any point? How old is the guy? I "think" this happened in 1980; am I correct?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. He's 55 (see the original post)...

...and I think the danger, as I stated elsewhere in this thread, is that whether he's paid his dues or no longer sick or anything else, if he's back on the streets, someone will take his ass down the day he's released. He murdered an icon. He killed a man in cold blood in front of his wife. Three decades later, what's he gonna do back in the world? Who'd hire him? Who'd rent a house or apartment to him? Anyone helping him would have a bulls-eye painted on their back as well, just as the imaginary bulls-eye he saw on John Lennon's back 30 years ago.

[cyr330]

11. I must have missed his age

I get your point that he would have a bulls eye on him, and I tend to agree with you. HOWEVER, you could argue the same thing about any felon getting out of prison-- who would hire them, etc.

There are a lot of people out of prison who committed heinous crimes. I'm not rationalizing what he did; I'm just saying that he's spent a long time in prison, and it's good they AT LEAST looked at what to do with him & they made a decision. SO, the decision is to keep him which is fine. I wonder what they're going to do with him in the meantime? Let him sit in prison? I wonder if he's receiving treatment for his mental disorder???

I BET they won't have to keep him in jail forever, as most people are no longer a threat once they reach their 60's. Nonetheless, I wonder if he would be in danger of being killed, as you said? It's an interesting story-- thanks--

[madmax]

12. And the bastard has lived longer than John. nt

[regnaD kciN]

13. Fair or unfair...

...I think someone who kills a public figure of great influence should face a stricter sentence, at least in terms of parole decisions, than someone who kills a private citizen. Why? Because, while the killer of a private citizen took him or her away from family and friends, the murderer of a public figure essentially takes him or her away from all of us -- they deprive the world of any good that this figure could have done in the future. That's why I don't believe, for example, that Sirhan should ever be paroled. He took Bobby Kennedy away from us, and who can say what the course of this country might have been had RFK been present on the political scene for the next thirty or forty years?

[petronius]

24. I completely disagree with that. I'd say that the loss experienced by the victim

of a murder is exponentially greater than the loss felt by the victim's family, which itself is exponentially greater than the loss to the rest of us when the victim is famous. The punishment should be based on the crime against the victim, and the other two consideration, especially the last, are extremely trivial by comparison.

As for Chapman, I hope the parole board elaborates on how they think he's a threat to society, and I don't believe that potential risk to him is a valid consideration...

[jberryhill]

14. He was motivated by a particular ideology

He was a born-again Christian who took exception to what he perceived as Lennon's promotion of atheism in "Imagine".

Among his friends at Covenant College - a conservative Presbyterian college in Tennesee(now PCA, then RPC) he used to sing "Imagine there's no John Lennon."

Through accidents of personal history, I am very familiar with those of his ilk and, yes, I believe he remains as dangerous as Scott Roeder (the murderer of George Tiller) and is cut from the same dangerous hateful fabric that passes itself off as conservative Christianity in this country.

So, yes, high probability of being a danger to others.

I appreciate your practical perspective on what imprisonment and parole are about. This person is not a good candidate, as his crime was not some sort of act of passion against a particular individual, rendering him no real threat to anyone else. His was an act in furtherance of a particular agenda which is very much with us.

[Psephos]

20. A well-reasoned post. n/t

[regnaD kciN]

25. Ah, yes. The usual DU Christian-bashing...

Yes, Chapman was a fundamentalist Christian for part of his life. He was also a devil-worshiper for another part (in his account published many years later, he spoke of praying to Satan for the strength to go through with the killing). Of course, there was the point where he was going around insisting that he himself was John Lennon, and that his future victim was an impostor who had stolen everything that belonged to him. In short, Chapman was a nutcase, plain and simple. But (as in the similar case of atheist Timothy McVeigh) why bother with the facts when you can just blame it on those eeeeeeeeeevil Christians? Really, if there's any difference between the treatment of Christianity here and Islam on the teabagger sites, it's only on an order of magnitude that can only be perceived with electron microscopes.

[jberryhill]

26. Sorry, no sale

I crossed paths with him. You didn't.

It is no more "Christian bashing" to discuss what motivated him than Scott Roeder. It is also not "Muslim bashing" to observe that a similar perversion of piety is used to motivate certain terrorists. Neither Chapman nor Bin Laden are representative of the larger faith communities whose names they masquerade under.

There is a cancer within American Christianity that is violent, destructive and hateful. Chapman put on a good show after his arrest, but I am directly familiar with where he contracted the disease, and those from whom he contracted it.

Whether you believe he should be paroled, which is the question here, turns on whether his act was an isolated event or representative of a broader agenda. I am certain it was.

Let me ask you something, do you know who this is?

http://theaquilareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2390:local-newspaper-interviews-pca-minister-charles-mcgowan-concerning-the-ongoing-pca-general-assembly&catid=91:pca-general-assembly&Itemid=145

"The denomination was conceived as a reaction against liberalism," said McGowan. "So there was a cause to rally around and a lot of momentum in the early stages. Now it's not growing as fast."

[pnorman]

27. "atheist Timothy McVeigh"

Mcveigh had been in close association with Christian Identity groups, with Sword And Arm Of The Lord being one, A good case could be made that such fringe groups aren't representative of mainstream Christianity. But calling him an "atheist" is a faaaaar stretch!

[sendero]

16. Sick?

Perhaps, anyone who could take the life of another is sick.

Sick enough to not be culpable? Not a chance. He knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong. He should rot in jail.

[customerserviceguy]

18. I'm going to go out on a wild limb here

and posit that you were born since 1980? Therefore, the murder of John Lennon is just 'ancient history' to you?

For me, it's current events, and that bastard Chapman can die in prison for all I care.

[Drale]

6. He should

root in a cell for the rest of his life also he should be made to listen to Yoko Ono's terrible music

[Grassy Knoll]

8. Imagine No Parole.....

It's easy if you try.

[madmax]

9. Good nt

[tabasco]

10. Rot. n/t

[Ticonderoga]

15. This guy should never be released into public

again. He is a psychopath, a danger to himself and others.

[CLANG]

17. He snuffed the life of the genius of an era.

DENIED.

[customerserviceguy]

19. You can put Sirhan Sirhan in the same category

May his last vision be those of the prison walls that have surrounded him for over forty years.

[Aristus]

23. If Chapman was looking to overcome feelings of failure,

he should be overjoyed at the prospect of successfully spending the rest of his miserable life in prison.