Federal appellate court nixes conviction in sex registration

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court has tossed out an Ohio man’s conviction for failing to update his registration as a sex offender.

The court in Cincinnati says he was indicted based on a regulation that wasn’t ready yet.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered that the indictment against Marcus Cain be dismissed.

Cain was convicted of attempted rape in 1998.

The court says Cain’s indictment for failing to register with authorities after moving from Ohio to Georgia covered a period that ended in March 2007. But that was while the government was still gathering comments on a regulation for applying a new federal registration to sex offenders convicted before July 2006.