DENVER -- Nearly 120 sex offenders will be released as soon as possible after the Supreme Court on Monday stood by its decision declaring their parole sentences illegal.

Without commenting, the justices denied requests by Attorney General Ken Salazar to review earlier rulings in which they decided that conflicting state laws approved in the 1990s limited parole for sex offenders who committed their crimes between 1993 and 1998.

The rulings came in the cases of five sex offenders who argued that they were wrongly sentenced to parole terms longer than their prison sentences.

Since 1998, lawmakers have required lifetime parole for some sex offenders.

Corrections Department Director John Suthers said that 72 inmates who are in prison for violating parole now deemed illegal will be released by Wednesday. The 44 inmates whose cases must be reviewed by the sentencing judge will be released as soon as possible.

An additional 251 people who are serving mandatory parole after completing their full prison sentences will be removed from parole immediately, and about 1,145 more inmates serving their original prison terms will be released with limited or no parole during the next 20 years, Suthers said.

Salazar spokesman Ken Lane said Monday's decisions represented the state's final hope of keeping affected sex offenders on parole as long as possible.

"We're very proud of the fact that we exercised the available legal options that were there," he said of the lengthy legal fight. "Ken (Salazar) saw this as a matter of public safety and his duty to protect the public safety, and so we have no regrets for seeking a reversal of the court's rulings."

In rulings last year, the state Supreme Court justices said that a parole term could not exceed the unserved part of the maximum sentence imposed or five years, whichever is less. That ruling applied to people convicted from 1993 to mid-1996.

A second ruling applied to people convicted from mid-1996 to late 1998. That ruling said a parole term could be no longer than the remainder of the maximum prison sentence imposed.

In September 2000, 93 inmates were released from prison or parole, but they were all returned to prison or placed on parole pending the Supreme Court's review of the cases.

On June 25, justices narrowly decided to stand by their initial rulings, but any inmate releases were put on hold after Salazar asked the Supreme Court for another review.

"We were hopeful that we could persuade a fourth justice," Lane said. "We believe the ruling had a fundamental error in it."

"You will see a certain number of sex offenders, who are in jail currently for parole violations, will have to be released immediately because, according to the Supreme Court, they should not have been on parole to begin with," he said.

In anticipation of the ruling, lawmakers this year approved several bills to strengthen laws affecting sex offenders who are released from prison and parole.

Among them were measures strengthening requirements for released sex offenders to register with local authorities and expanding the list of offenders whose photos and identifying information are placed on a state-run Web site.

Suthers said he was disappointed with Monday's decisions.

"It's very clear if you look at the history of sex-offender sentencing in Colorado that the Legislature has been increasing periods of sentencing and parole, and it's contrary to that history to say that in 1996 they meant to decrease the period of parole," he said. "But the statutes are very confusing."