The state Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear the appeal of a local woman who claimed she was improperly sentenced for a 2005 drunken driving conviction.

The decision lets stand earlier rulings by Superior Court and Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Thomas R. Dobson.

Sarah E. Foster, 33, of Sharon, was arrested by Hermitage police Nov. 30, 2005, on East State Street. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.218 percent, more than twice the legal limit at the time.

She was convicted Aug. 22, 2006, by Dobson at a nonjury trial of drunken driving-third offense and a lighting violation and sentenced to 1 to 2 years in jail with work release eligibility and to pay a $2,525 fine and costs.

Ms. Foster’s appeal alleges that her sentence was unconstitutional — violating the due process provisions — because it took into account a 1997 drunken driving arrest, which had resulted in her placement in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program.

In 1997, state law used a seven-year look-back window to determine the number of previous drunken driving offenses. That window was expanded in 2004 to 10 years.

Ms. Foster said she agreed to participate in the ARD program because she believed that conviction would be considered for only seven years.

A three-judge panel of Superior Court in November supported the law and referred to its April 2007 ruling that arose from a Somerset County case that dealt with the same issue.

In that case, Galen E. Fulton argued that a drunken driving-fifth offense sentence unconstitutionally punished him because a judge took into consideration a 1995 conviction, whose sentence he had completed. Superior Court upheld the validity of the newer law with the 10-year look-back period and said Fulton was not being punished for an earlier conviction, but for a new offense.

Ms. Foster has been free on bond while her appeal has been pending.