The New York state Board of Parole said on Monday that the factors supporting Chapman's parole were outweighed by the premeditated and "celebrity-seeking" nature of the crime.

"Your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society and would so deprecate that seriousness of the crime as to undermine respect for the law," the board wrote.

Chapman shot Lennon, who would be 75 if he were still alive today, on December 8, 1980, outside his luxury Manhattan apartment. The 61-year-old Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a sentence of 20-years to life in Wende Correctional Facility in western New York.

At a 2010 hearing, Chapman recalled that he had considered shooting Johnny Carson or Elizabeth Taylor instead, and said again that he chose Lennon because the ex-Beatle was more accessible, that his century-old apartment building by Central Park "wasn't quite as cloistered."

"I am sorry for causing that type of pain," he said. "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory."

The inmate - who is believed to suffer from mental illness - became eligible for parole in 2000, but the parole board that year and at each subsequent review every two years has refused to free him.

jbh/gsw (AP, AFP)