There is much controversy today about sentencing murderers to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP). The Supreme Court's decision in Roper v. Simmons -- permanently taking the death penalty off the table for under-18 murderers -- was still warm out of the laser printer when the drive to ban LWOP for them shifted into high gear.
Why not hold out a possibility of parole? A sentence of life with parole for a killer often means a life sentence to opposing parole for the murder victim's family. I have represented victims' families in a number of cases. (See, e.g., this brief.) In each case, they have been intensely interested in seeing the killer receive the full punishment he was sentenced to, whether that be death or truly spending the rest of his life in prison.
Now the Daily Beast has an interview with a particularly famous survivor, Yoko Ono:
Why not hold out a possibility of parole? A sentence of life with parole for a killer often means a life sentence to opposing parole for the murder victim's family. I have represented victims' families in a number of cases. (See, e.g., this brief.) In each case, they have been intensely interested in seeing the killer receive the full punishment he was sentenced to, whether that be death or truly spending the rest of his life in prison.
Now the Daily Beast has an interview with a particularly famous survivor, Yoko Ono:
How does Ono feel about the possibility of Chapman being released? He was denied parole last year for the eighth time, and his wife Gloria told the Daily Mail the couple had written to Ono seeking forgiveness.
"I'm super-careful, almost like a certain animal who is used to being hunted, like a deer," says Ono, who employs personal security. "So when I go out or when I don't go out, in my apartment, I'm very, very careful. It's very, very difficult for me to think about Chapman, especially because he doesn't seem to think that was a bad thing to do. It's crazy."
Ono has opposed every single one of Chapman's bids for parole. On her husband's killer's possible future freedom, Ono says, "One thing I think is that he did it once, he could do it again, to somebody else--you know. It could be me, it could be Sean, it could be anybody, so there is that concern."
Does Ono still feel Chapman represents a threat to her safety?
"Yeah. I would be concerned. I said he's crazy, but probably not--probably he had a purpose he wanted to accomplish like 'Kill John Lennon.' So he might have another purpose. He's not the kind of person who's... I don't think he's just doing it emotionally. There is a reason, whether a simple reason or not, to do what he does, and justify it. So that's very scary."
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