diff --git a/conkit/core/sequence.py b/conkit/core/sequence.py
index aae08f5a..c852027d 100644
--- a/conkit/core/sequence.py
+++ b/conkit/core/sequence.py
@@ -38,8 +38,6 @@
 __date__ = "03 Aug 2016"
 __version__ = "1.0"
 
-import sys
-
 from Bio import pairwise2
 from conkit.core._entity import _Entity
 
@@ -163,10 +161,7 @@ def seq(self, seq):
     @property
     def seq_ascii(self):
         """The protein sequence as ASCII-encoded :obj:`str`"""
-        if sys.version_info >= (3, ):
-            return self._seq.encode("ascii")
-        else:
-            return bytearray(self._seq, "ascii")
+        return bytearray(self._seq, "ascii")
 
     @property
     def seq_len(self):