Racist Arsonist Sentenced

A white man who admitted to helping burn down a mostly black church to protest against Barack Obama's election as the nation's first black president was sentenced on Wednesday to four-and-a-half years in prison. Authorities said three white Springfield friends, Thomas Gleason, Michael Jacques and Benjamin Haskell, were motivated by racial resentment when they doused the building with gasoline and torched it. Gleason pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights, religious property damage because of race, and damage to religious property by use of fire, according to the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Smyth. "This was a horrific crime, unexplainable, in fact with horrific motives," assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Smyth told the court. Gleason apologized for what he called an "incredibly stupid" act and for the "pain and frustration" it caused the church's community and to his own family. Gleason pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights, religious property damage because of race, and damage to religious property by use of fire. Judge Michael Ponsor in U.S. District Court sentenced Gleason, 24, to 54 months in federal prison for his role in the hate crime, followed by three years of parole. Gleason was also ordered to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution, including about $124,000 to the church. The remainder of the money goes to insurance companies involved in the case. The rebuilt church reopened in September.