A convicted drug dealer who remained at liberty for nine years must finish his prison term, according to a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday.

Sheldon L. West, 49, of Smithton, remained free for years due to bureaucratic mistakes. The Supreme Court reversed a Superior Court decision, ordering him to complete his 27- to 54-month sentence for a 1990 drug dealing conviction .

During his appeal of that conviction, for drug possession and possession with intent to deliver cocaine, he was released on bond. However, after the high court denied his appeal in 1993, the lower court did not carry out its duty to send him back to prison, the ruling stated. No one notified him of the ruling, he said.

In the intervening years, the trial court judge on his case, the late Common Pleas Court President Judge Robert E. Dauer, passed away. Mr. West racked up convictions in Allegheny County for drunken driving and cocaine possession and a Westmoreland County conviction on another drug charge.

In April 2002, administrators in the Criminal Division of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court caught the error and issued a warrant for his arrest. Two months later, police stopped him for a routine traffic violation and arrested him on the warrant. He was placed in custody to serve out his remaining sentence.

During that time, Mr. West filed a writ of habeas corpus, saying his rights were violated because his attorney never told him the outcome of his appeal and the lower court stalled so long in fulfilling its mandate.

To confine him after nearly a decade, he said, was "outrageous conduct which is offensive to the constitution ." He said his circumstances were further inhibited due to missing evidence, deceased witnesses and lost trial transcripts. Another Common Pleas judge denied his request to be released.

He appealed again.

Charting new legal ground, the Superior Court tackled the issue of whether a person has a right to "speedy incarceration" and found that the court erred, repeatedly missing opportunities to re-incarcerate Mr. West. It also found that the lost time and lost information had jeopardized his ability to defend himself.

The court ruled that his sentence on the 1990 case should be wiped clear.

The Allegheny County district attorney appealed to the Supreme Court, which reviewed federal cases and cases from other jurisdictions involving a delayed re-imprisonment.

The court found that the time lag did not preclude the enforcement of the sentence and noted that the delay was negligent but not deliberate. His due process rights were not violated and he must now serve out the remainder of his time, according to an opinion by five justices.