Payback Ordered In Church Arson

Fri., Dec. 13, 1996

Associated Press

A man convicted of burning a Portland church must pay restitution of at least $25 a month for 20 years after his release from prison.

Antoine Jamar Dean must first serve a five-year prison sentence for arson in the June 20 blaze that gutted the Immanuel Christian Fellowship church.

Dean, who is black, pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to setting fire to the predominantly black church. Initially it had been feared the crime was racially motivated.

When Dean was sentenced in October, he apologized to the church and said that another black man he met in jail had promised him money to burn the church.

U.S. District Judge Malcolm Marsh on Wednesday rejected arguments by Dean’s attorney that a new federal law, the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act, amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

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