http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20080812/en_celeb_eo/23384
My question is, if he killed John Doe instead of John Lennon, would he have made parole? And should it make a difference?
I don’t think MDC would have made elaborate, lying-in-wait plans just to kill a John Doe. He went way out of his way, flying cross-country IIRC, to do this premeditated act.
I don’t know if it should, but it makes a difference to me. Let him rot.
I don’t know. X made some pretty good music, but Doe was nowhere near Lennon’s stature.
The fact is, you can’t really separate Lennon’s fame from the crime, because it was the entire reason for the crime in the first place. So while he may not have been denied parole for killing a “nobody”, he (and his lawyers) certainly should have expected it would be tougher given the public consciousness of his target.
As a huge John Lennon fan, I would hope he never gets out of prison.
But I bet John Lennon might have thought differently and shown more forgiveness than I.
However, if they did release him, he would have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life - as I would guess there are quite a few people that might not want to see him walking the streets again.
No cite, but I remember reading that there is a huge contigent of John Lennon fans that share this line of thinking and it’s why MDC is continually denied parole.
Let him out. Although he might be hounded to death by Lennon fans.
Or pounded.
It’s unfortunate that there are people who feel as if they have to harm Chapman, or wish for others to do violence to him. Are they truly John Lennon fans? I for one, do not wish to see him draw a breath of free air ever again. But I would rather see him live a long life and die from natural causes than be beaten to death by a mob. Whether it’s for his own safety or for the public safety, I am happy to see him denied parole. He committed a heinous act of stalking and deliberate murder and I feel his conviction and sentence were just. Yet, for people to take “justice” into their own hands diminishes us all, and is not true to John’s spirit. Justice was done through the New York courts in giving him a life sentence and forever denying him parole.
Man, what rotton luck for Chapman. One guy in the world who would have forgiven him and he happens to be dead.
I guess you can look at it as John Doe vs. John Lennon, and that’s one thing, but I think that the fact that it was John Lennon made it, as **woodstockbirdybird ** said , a part of the public consciousness; an assassination.
That adds some weight due to the impact. I don’t mean his life itself is worth more than John Doe’s, but that the public effect was much greater in Chapman’s case.
But I do realize that legally, they should at least attempt to use some precedent as far as expected and customary parole request outcomes.
I’m curious about what the OP’s question is, in part because I’m wondering if this is a Cafe thing or a GD thing: jtgain, are you wondering what would have happened if he’d killed “John Doe,” or are you talking about what should happen to your ‘average’ murderer?
And the Jesus comparisons continue…
Please…Lennon was WAY more popular than Jesus…
[singing]Alllll we are sayyyyinnng … is kick Chapman’s asssss![/singing]
He did not just kill someone in the heat of the moment or as an unintended consequence of other criminal acts, as was mentioned before this was a premeditated and hughly complex assassination of a very public figure.
Would you care that he got denied parole if he was the killer of John Doe rather than John Lennon?
Not to speak for the OP, but it seemed like they were asking about your average murderer - I threw in the “John Doe of the band X” thing to be a smart-ass.
I knew he wasn’t talking about the musician John Doe. I’m trying to find out a little more about the what-if the OP is asking. For example, is he asking sort of a legal question about ‘are murderers like this guy usually paroled?’ Or is he opening a debate about whether or not the guy should be paroled because similar offenders would be?
Ah, got it. Didn’t want my little joke to cause any confusion, is all.
Or, if it was a premeditated and hugely complex assassination of his wife, how long would he have served?
Timothy McVeigh didn’t kill anybody famous. If he hadn’t received the death penalty, should he have been paroled.
Premediated murder should mean life in prison without parole or death. Period.