John Lennon's killer up for seventh parole hearing this week

Later this week, Beatles' frontman John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, will face his seventh parole hearing. Chapman shot and killed Lennon outside his New York apartment in 1980. He confessed and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Since 2000, Chapman has been up for parole every two years, BBC News reports. At his last parole hearing in 2010, he told the parole board there were other targets on his list including late talk show host Johnny Carson and (now) late actress Elizabeth Taylor, ABC News reports. "I was going through that in my mind the other day. I knew you would ask that," Chapman told the officials at his hearing. "Johnny Carson was one of them. Elizabeth Taylor." Chapman said there were two others, but he couldn't recall who they were. "If it wasn't Lennon, it could have been someone else," he said. Chapman's seventh hearing is set to begin Tuesday and will last about two to three days, New York State prison spokeswoman Linda Foglia told AFP. She said she expects a decision by "the end of the week." According to BBC News, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono has urged prison officials to keep Chapman locked up as she fears for own her life and the lives of her sons. Chapman is currently in protective custody at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Alden, New York. He was transferred there from Attica in May of this year. Mark David Chapman was 25 and mentally unstable when he shot and killed John Lennon, AFP reports. According to BBC News, Chapman claims to have had a "religious conversion" in prison. At his 2010 parole hearing he explained that he wasn't "thinking clearly." At the time, his thought process was that if killed he killed John Lennon he could "become somebody." He claims he has come to realize how terrible and selfish his decision was. John Lennon would have turned 72 this October. He was killed on December 8, 1980.