Diana Becton
Diana Becton, also known as Diana Becton Smith (born August 16, 1951) is a former trial judge and is currently both the first woman and first African American to be elected district attorney in the history of Contra Costa County in California. Education and early career Becton attended Oakland public schools. She received a B.A. in Economics from San Francisco State University and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law. Becton worked as a Housing Finance & Development Supervisor for the city of Richmond from 1979 to 1987. Becton worked in private practice from 1987 to 1995. Becton was appointed to the Contra Costa County Superior Court in 1995 by then Governor Pete Wilson. In 2011, she was elected by her colleagues to be the presiding judge, in charge of court administration. Becton has a Master's degree in Theology from the Pacific School of Religion. Becton was admitted to the State Bar of California on December 11, 1986, and her attorney status is ''activ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Contra Costa County, California
) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 = Region , subdivision_name2 = San Francisco Bay Area , seat_type = County seat , seat = Martinez , parts_type = Largest city , parts = Concord (population and land area)Richmond (total area) , unit_pref = US , area_total_sq_mi = 804 , area_land_sq_mi = 715.94 , area_water_sq_mi = 81 , elevation_max_footnotes = , elevation_max_ft = 3852 , population_as_of = 2020 , population_footnotes = , population_total = 1,165,927 , population_density_sq_mi = 1629 , established_title ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Practice Of Law
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor, or civil law notary. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions that are posed by the software in order to construct the legal documents. In addition, regulatory consulting firms also provide adv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work qtd. in From the Oxford English Dictionary: The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft. While precise definitions vary, depending on the institution, such representations are generally considered to violate academic integrity and journalistic ethics as well as social norms of learning, teaching, research, fairness, respect and responsibility in many cultures. It is subject to sanctions such as penalties, suspension, expulsion from school or work, substantial fines and even imprisonment. Plagiarism is typically not in itself a crime, but like counterfeiting, fraud can be punished in a court f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts, especially those recently released from prison, is "ex-con" ("ex-convict"). Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences tend not to be described as "convicts". The label of "ex-convict" usually has lifelong implications, such as social stigma or reduced opportunities for employment. The federal government of Australia, for instance, will not, in general, employ an ex-convict, while some state and territory governments may limit the time for or before which a former convict may be employed. Historical usage The particular use of the term "convict" in the English-speaking world was to describe the huge numbers of criminals, both male and female, who clogged British gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (date ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bail In The United States
Bail in the United States refers to the practice of releasing suspects from custody before their hearing, on payment of bail, which is money or pledge of property to the court which may be refunded if suspects return to court for their trial. Bail practices in the United States vary from state to state. History Bail mechanisms were originally intended to allow someone charged with a crime to remain free until their trial (being presumed innocent) while ensuring that they would show up for it. A person's family or business acquaintances often had an interest in seeing them appear in court and would help to ensure that they did so. Some historians speculate that a shift towards the use of cash bail may have occurred with western expansion, as people became more transient and lacked connection with local family and community. In pre-independence America, bail law was based on English law. Some of the colonies simply guaranteed their subjects the protections of that law. In 17 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Criminal Justice Reform
Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in Criminal justice, criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any point where the criminal justice system intervenes in citizens’ lives, including lawmaking, policing, and Sentence (law), sentencing. Police reform Police reform describes the various proposals to change Police, policing practices. The Brookings Institute has organizes police reform into three categories: short-term, medium-term, long-term. Short-term hold Police officers accountable for there actions. The Law Enforcement Bill of Rights protects officers from losing their jobs, having their personal information put out to the world, police officers will be informed when they are being investigated, will be told who they will be interrogated by. Medium-term would shift the financial burden of paying civilian payouts to the police departmen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Attorney General Of California
The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the Government of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The California attorney general carries out the responsibilities of the office through the California Department of Justice. The department employs over 1,100 attorneys and 3,700 non-attorney employees. The California attorney general is elected to a four-year term, with a maximum of two terms. The election is held at the same statewide election as the Governor of California, governor, California Lieutenant Governor, lieutenant governor, California State Controller, controller, California Secretary of State, secretary of state, California State Treasurer, treasurer, California Superintendent of Public Instruction, superintendent of public instruction, and California Insurance Commissioner, insurance commissioner. A few individual atto ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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State Bar Of California
The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate discipline, accepting attorney-member fees, and financially distributing sums paid through attorney trust accounts to fund nonprofit legal entities. It is directly responsible to the Supreme Court of California, however, its Trustees are now appointed by the Supreme Court, the California Legislature, and Governor of California. All attorney admissions are issued as recommendations of the State Bar, which are then routinely ratified by the Supreme Court. Attorney discipline is handled by the State Bar Office of Chief Trial Counsel, which acts as prosecutor before the State Bar Court of California. The State Bar was legally established on July 29, 1927, when the State Bar Act went into effect."Introductory: The Genesis and Development of the State B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field , religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument ( experiential, philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help understa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Master's Degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. A master's degree normally requires previous study at the bachelor's degree, bachelor's level, either as a separate degree or as part of an integrated course. Within the area studied, master's graduates are expected to possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of and applied topics; high order skills in [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chief Judge (United States)
A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, the chief judge has primary responsibility for the administration of the court. Chief judges are determined by seniority. The chief judge commonly presides over trials and hearings. In the Supreme Court of the United States the highest-ranking member is the Chief Justice of the United States. Federal United States courts of appeals In the United States courts of appeals, the chief judge has certain administrative responsibilities and presides over ''en banc'' sessions of the court and meetings of the Judicial Council. The chief judge remains an active judge of the court hearing and deciding cases, but at their option may elect to take on a reduced caseload to provide time to perform administrative responsibilities. In order to qualif ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |