WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state violated the rights of a convicted sex offender by holding him in jail for years without a trial under the claim that he was a sexually violent predator subject to involuntary civil commitment, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The state's highest court agreed with a ruling by Sedgwick County District Judge Benjamin Burgess, who in 2014 ordered Todd Ellison released from jail. The Supreme Court found that the state violated Ellison's due process rights to a speedy trial after he remained jailed for 1,705 days awaiting trial.

Ellison's attorney, Michael Whale...