DEER LODGE -- A terminally ill Montana State Prison inmate, whose request for a medical parole was misplaced by prison officials for a year, lost his bid for freedom Wednesday.

The state Board of Pardons and Parole, saying 63-year-old Roy Link was not sick enough to no longer be a danger, unanimously rejected his request to be released 25 months before he is eligible for parole.

''I'm looking at Mr. Link here, and he can walk, he can eat, he can talk, he can bathe himself, he is very capable, he's not incapacitated" as the law requires for medical parole, said board member Mark Fournier of Hamilton.

Afterward, the convicted murderer told a board staff member that he'll become sufficiently ill to qualify for release by simply refusing to take medication for his myriad health problems.

Link, serving 25 years for helping his sister kill their stepfather in a 1996 fire, has been diagnosed with a long list of ills, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, degenerative bone disease, liver problems, gall bladder disease and severe back pain.

When asked Wednesday why he wanted to be released early, he told the board, ''My life is not too much longer to go, and there are a few more things I want to get done first."

A doctor at a Veterans Administration hospital in Salt Lake two years ago concluded he had little time to live.

Another physician concluded in May 2002 that ''his further life expectancy is extremely limited, and the risk he poses, because of his physical disability, would seem to be somewhat minimal."

Link submitted his initial parole request in August 2002, but it was lost by administrators. A year later, after The Associated Press reported the mistake, he was allowed to file a second application.

Warden Mike Mahoney and Dr. Liz Rantz, the prison medical director, recommended Link be considered for parole.

But all three board members said state law clearly prohibits them from granting medical parole unless an inmate's physical condition is so disabling that he is ''highly unlikely to present a clear and present danger to public safety." Link doesn't meet that standard, they said.

Fournier said that, according to the law, an inmate able to move still would be considered a danger. Link could still light a match, he said in reference to the arson murder.

Based on the law, Rantz said, she would vote against the parole if a member of the board because there is no way to guarantee Link will not commit another crime. ''I think that the likelihood of him doing things is very remote, but I can't say no, he could not."

Ken Peterson and Sheryl Hoffarth, board members from Billings, agreed. Peterson said many of Link's health problems existed before he reached prison in January 2001, but that he could return with another request for medical parole if his condition deteriorates.

Hoffarth raised an additional concern about Link's insistence that he did not help set the fatal fire. ''I recognize that you are in deteriorating and debilitating health, but I'm concerned about your unwillingness to accept responsibility for the crime," she said.

''I will accept responsibility for the crime," said Link, who appeared before the board in a wheelchair. ''I think about this case every single day. I was not there. I had no way of altering the fact that it happened. My sister did it, and I was accountable for her actions, not for my own, but for hers."

As the hearing ended, Peterson noted Link's parole eligibility date of Dec, 18, 2005, by saying to him, ''We'll see you in a couple of years."

''Hopefully," Link replied.