The man convicted of killing John Lennon more than four decades ago is up for parole for a 12th time.

Mark David Chapman, 67, pleaded guilty to shooting Lennon as the Beatles icon returned to his Manhattan apartment building in December 1980.

He was first eligible for parole in 2000 — and has previously been denied release 11 times.

Chapman — an inmate at the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York — was a 25-year-old religious fanatic when he traveled from Hawaii to New York City armed with a .38 Special handgun, 14 hours of Beatles recordings, and a copy of J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye.”

A former fan of the legendary rock band, Chapman was reportedly angered by Lennon’s claim that the band was “more popular than Jesus.”  

In a 2014 interview, Chapman’s wife, Gloria, revealed that he was open about his desire to kill the cultural icon, but she did not believe him.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she told the Daily Mail at the time. 

On December 8, 1980, Chapman lurked outside The Dakota, the Upper West Side building where Lennon lived with his wife, Yoko Ono, and saw the couple depart for a recording session. 

Before getting in his limousine, Lennon, 40, was photographed signing Chapman’s copy of his and Ono’s newly released “Double Fantasy” album.

When Lennon and Ono returned around 10:50 p.m., Chapman was still outside the building. He shot Lennon four times in the back with hollow-point bullets.

Lennon was rushed to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Lennon’s death sparked a torrent of public mourning that continues to this day. Last winter, on the 41st anniversary of his death, fans gathered at the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park to commemorate the musician with flowers, candles, and singing Beatles hits like “I Should Have Known Better.”

After a judge deemed him mentally fit to stand trial, Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

His most recent denial of parole came in 2020, with officials saying release “would be incompatible with the welfare of society.”

Chapman, during a hearing that year, told the parole board that he killed Lennon because the musician “was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish.”

He also cited Salinger’s 1951 novel, saying that he related to protagonist Holden Caulfield’s “isolation, loneliness.”

When asked if justice had been served, Chapman said, “When you knowingly plot someone’s murder and know it’s wrong and you do it for yourself, that’s a death penalty right there, in my opinion.”

Although Ono, 89, did not comment on the hearing, she has written to the parole board several times to warn that Chapman still poses a threat to her and her family. 

While he remains behind bars, Chapman enjoys certain privileges. Since 2014, he’s been allowed regular conjugal visits with Gloria, who has stood by him.

“I have 44 hours in a trailer home with him,” Gloria has said of the visits. “We make a homemade pizza bar … There is a TV and we’ll watch ‘Wheel of Fortune.’”

Given his cozy arrangement, it is perhaps not surprising that Chapman last expressed indifference about his own freedom.

“If the law and you choose to leave me in here for the rest of my life, I have no complaint whatsoever,” he told the panel in 2020.