SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a sex-abuse conviction of former death-row inmate Scott Dean Harberts, who was found guilty of molesting a child related to the 2-year-old girl whom he was convicted of killing.

Harberts' case drew wide notoriety in 2000 when the Oregon Supreme Court overturned his 1994 conviction of raping and killing Kristina Hornych, of Oregon City, on grounds his right to a speedy trial was violated.

In the ruling yesterday, the appeals court upheld the 2001 conviction by Clackamas County Judge Robert Herndon, who had found Harberts guilty of sexually abusing Kristina's relative when she was a child. Harberts served one year in jail for the crime.

On the murder charge, Harberts was held in jail for five years while prosecutors repeatedly appealed a trial-court judge's ruling suppressing incriminating statements that he had made to police.

In the sex-abuse conviction appeal, the Court of Appeals rejected Harberts' argument that his constitutional protection against so-called "ex post facto" laws was violated because the statute of limitations for such crimes was extended after the date of the alleged crime.