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ALBANY, N.Y. - The man who killed ex-Beatle John Lennon says in his most recent parole bid that he hoped to live and work with an upstate New York minister if released.
Mark David Chapman was denied parole for the seventh time last week, and a transcript of the hearing was released Wednesday. The 57-year-old can try again in two years.
Chapman shot Lennon in December 1980 outside the Manhattan apartment building where the former Beatle lived. He was sentenced in 1981 to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The parole board noted his positive efforts while in jail but said releasing him would trivialize the killing.
The former security guard from Hawaii said that his motivation for the killing was instant notoriety.
Yoko Ono and her son say a parole board's decision to keep John Lennon's killer behind bars is "complicated" and "sensitive."
Ono and Sean Lennon were reluctant to discuss Chapman during an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Sean Lennon called the matter "complicated." He added, "Let's just say that our lives were changed forever by that, so it's a sensitive sort of thing."
Ono said it was especially difficult for Sean "because Sean was so close to John and suddenly John was gone."
The two spoke after a news conference opposing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Chapman can reapply for parole in 2014.
