You might think after 21 years spent sentencing people, including eight sent to death row, that Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry would always have an answer to the question:
What is justice?
But the answer isn't always apparent, Perry explained in court Tuesday. Sometimes the question keeps you up at night and remains unanswered when you wake up in the morning. One thing, he said, is certain:
Justice cannot be cookie-cutter or meted out based on public opinion.
"Justice is not taking a poll like a politician," said Perry, as he explained how he struggled with a sentence for 20-year-old John Hill Hawthorne, the man convicted of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Joel Boner at an Ocoee campsite in July 2009.
Hawthorne faced 20.5 years to life in prison. In the end, Perry gave him 38-years followed by five years of supervised probation.
"You took a life and for that you will spend your youth in prison," Perry told Hawthorne, who stood before him shackled, showing no emotion except for a tired look on his face upon hearing his sentence.
On the one side, Perry said he considered that a young man with a free-spirit, a love of nature and many years ahead of him had lost his life. Boner's family, deeply Christian, came to court Tuesday and asked Perry for a tough sentence.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...0100810_1_joel-boner-cameron-milner-lon-boner