In front of the parole board, Mark David Chapman, the killer of the music legend John Lennon, has admitted for the first time his shame for the 1980 murder of the singer.

Earlier this month, the parole board denied his request for release, 28 years after he was sentenced to 20 years to life.

"I recognized that that 25-year-old man, I don't think he really appreciated the life that he was taking, that this was a human being," he said in comments released Tuesday. "I feel now at 53, I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is. I have changed a lot,” Chapman said, according to the transcript. "I am ashamed. That is my first thought. I am sorry for what I did," he added.

Lennon was shot by Chapman on December 8, 1980; back then he was returning home accompanied by his wife, Yoko Ono.

In the transcript, Chapman said that he initially got the urge to kill Lennon after looking at the Beatles' classic album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

"I perceived him at that time, and wrongly judged him, to be a phony," Chapman told the board. "Here he is at this ritzy building, and he had been singing of love and other things, at that time, it angered me."

"It was more about me and not him. I was probably mad at myself for my failures," Chapman said. "I would become famous, I would be something other than a nobody, and that was my reasoning at the time."

Chapman has steered clear from trouble since October 1994 and his clean disciplinary record gave him the chance to enter the parole interview. During it, however, he stated that he executed “the premeditated slaying of John Lennon with an essentially clear mind.”  His statement made the New York State Division of Parole worry that a free Chapman can constitute a threat for the society. The board’s statement explained its decision “due to concern for the public safety and welfare.”

“Your discretionary release at this time would thus not be compatible with the welfare of society at large, and would tend to deprecate the seriousness of the instant offense, and undermine respect for the law,” the board explained.

Moreover, the society opposes to the perspective of having him wandering freely. According to the spokeswoman for the New York State Division of Parole, Heather Groll, the board received 50 letters and a petition signed by almost 1,100 people expressing their opposition to Chapman’s release. On the other side of the barricade were only three letters supporting him being freed.

Chapman has served 24 years of his sentence at the Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison near Rochester, New York.

Due to his good behavior, Chapman was granted conjugal visits with his wife. He has been part of the national “family reunion” program, which allows inmates to receive visits from family members and spend up to 44 hours with them at a time. He has been enjoying this type of visits for 16 years.

Chapman also tried his luck in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006; he will be able to apply for parole in August 2010.