Susan Atkins, left, is seen in a movable bed beside her husband and attorney James Whitehouse during her parole hearing on Wednesday at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, Calif. (Ben Margot/POOL/Associated Press)

Susan Atkins, the terminally ill Charles Manson follower who admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago, lost what is likely to be her last bid for freedom before she dies.

Atkins, who suffers from brain cancer, slept through most of the four-hour hearing Wednesday during which her husband-lawyer pleaded for her release and families of victims of the Sharon Tate-Labianca killings urged that she be kept behind bars until she dies.

Atkins, 61, had been expected to die of brain cancer more than a year ago, but she continues to cling to life.

She was denied compassionate release in July 2008, shortly after she was diagnosed and given only months to live.

Atkins was convicted of seven murders, including Tate's.