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John Lennon's Killer Up For Parole Again In New York

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- John Lennon's killer will seek his freedom this week for a sixth time.

Mark David Chapman is scheduled to appear before a parole board at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. It's Division of Parole policy to identify only the week, not the day, the hearing will take place.

Parole officials are expected to release their decision the day after the hearing and a transcript about a week later.

The former maintenance man from Hawaii has been in prison nearly 30 years for gunning down the former Beatle on a Manhattan sidewalk outside The Dakota on Dec. 8, 1980. He was sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Now 55, Chapman has been denied parole five times, appearing before the board every two years since 2000.

Last week, Yoko Ono said Chapman might be a danger to her, other family members and perhaps even himself and that she was trying to be "practical" in asking that Chapman remain behind bars.

At his last parole hearing, Chapman said he was ashamed and sorry for gunning down the former Beatle. He told the parole board he understood the gravity of his actions and was a changed man.

A new documentary on Lennon's family and artistic life in New York in the 1970s is scheduled to air Nov. 22 as part of the "American Masters" public TV series. "LennonNYC" will include rare studio recordings, concert film outtakes and home movies.

The film "is about New York, the city he was in love with and strangely, the city that he loved so much, it killed him," Ono said. "It was his love, and it was his death."

Lennon would have been 70 in October.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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