Mark Chapman, who shot dead John Lennon 20 years ago because he wanted to be a somebody, lost his first bid for parole yesterday. The New York parole board felt he was still unusually interested in fame.
Chapman, who has apologised to Lennon's family, says he is well again and should be released to tour the world playing his own music. He has almost completed his minimum sentence at Attica prison in upstate New York.
Chapman (45) was interviewed yesterday morning at the prison by three parole-board members, said Mr Tom Grant, a spokesman for the New York state division of parole. He was told of the rejection four hours later.
In its ruling, the board called Chapman's killing of Lennon "calculated and unprovoked".
"Your most vicious and violent act was apparently fuelled by your need to be acknowledged," the board added.
"During your parole hearing, this panel noted your continued interest in maintaining your notoriety."
The rejection came as no surprise to Mr Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, which monitors prisons. "The parole board wouldn't be willing to take the political heat they would get by doing it."
Even if Chapman were not a notorious murderer, his chances of release in December would still have been remote.
Parole has been granted in the past three years to only 17 of the 303 people serving time in the state for murder or attempted murder and making their first application.
A poll by the cable channel Court TV, which showed a documentary including an interview with Chapman the night before the closed-door hearing, showed only 6 per cent of respondents believed he should be freed.
The board received written submissions, one of them from Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow. She said she and the couple's son Sean would not feel safe if Chapman were released.
It will now be two years before Chapman can reapply .
On the Court TV documentary, Chapman talked of the murder - outside Lennon's Manhattan home in 1980 - as though he were describing the actions of someone else. He said of the day of the shooting: "When you look at it, here was a man who was a blowing cauldron, very lucid and very clear. Yet my stomach and heart were disintegrating."
Jack Jones, who conducted the interview, said: "Mark is a creature of fiction to a large extent. He had this fantasy world where he was the fifth Beatle in his mind."