Follow @DONDIVAMAGAZINE
Next week on @wiredradio407 on 91.5 FM @djwired interviews @Frenchie1017 from BRICK SQUAD & @dondivamagazine ITS GOING DOWN ON 91.5 FM
2 hours ago from Twitter for Android"@REBELBLACK: Next week on 91.5 FM @djwired interviewS @Frenchie1017 (BRICK SQUAD) AND @DONDIVAMAGAZINE St night 1 am"
2 hours ago from Twitter for Android
RT @REBELBLACK: Next week on 91.5 FM @djwired interviewS @Frenchie1017 (BRICK SQUAD) AND @DONDIVAMAGAZINE St night 1 am
3 hours ago from Twitter for Android
RT @REBELBLACK: Next week on 91.5 FM @djwired interviewS @Frenchie1017 (BRICK SQUAD) AND @DONDIVAMAGAZINE St night 1 am
3 hours ago from Twitter for Android
RT @REBELBLACK: Next week on 91.5 FM @djwired interviewS @Frenchie1017 (BRICK SQUAD) AND @DONDIVAMAGAZINE St night 1 am
3 hours ago from Twitter for Android
RT @twitdestinyny: "Hope Everyone having a good weekend! @JOCCITY414
@dondivamagazine @Gary3131 @MzNay414 @BIGCITY414 @MecSwagga @jockomo141 @CHILLiGRINDWILL
5 hours ago from Twitter for Android
RT @twitdestinyny: "Hope Everyone having a good weekend! @JOCCITY414
@dondivamagazine @Gary3131 @MzNay414 @BIGCITY414 @MecSwagga @jockomo141 @CHILLiGRINDWILL
5 hours ago from Twitter for Android
Category Archives: Legal Corner
Canada To Legalize Weed, I’m Packing & Moving To Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada has voted to legalize pot.
Seventy-seven per cent of delegates at the Liberals’ biennial convention told their party’s leadership Sunday morning that they want a future Liberal government to legalize marijuana.
Their interim leader Bob Rae acknowledged the war on drugs hasn’t worked, but told reporters the party’s caucus would have to study the implications of the resolution.
“Frankly, the status quo doesn’t work and that’s what needs to change,” Rae said. “The Liberal party is saying that the current laws do not work and that we need a new direction.”
Do you support the legalization of marijuana in Canada?
Also posted in Esha- The Diva, News U Can Use, The Weed Spot
Leave a comment
Get Your Hand Out My Pocket … Officer!
A little pot is trouble in NYC: 50k busts a year
NEW YORK – As the nation’s biggest city deals with threats of terrorism and a variety of violent crimes, carrying a little bit of marijuana is still a big deal.
There are more arrests for low-level pot possession in New York City – about 50,000 a year – than any other crime, accounting for about one of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts.
It’s a phenomenon that has persisted despite more leniency toward marijuana use – the state loosened its marijuana-possession laws more than 30 years ago.
Critics say the deluge has been driven in part by the New York Police Department’s strategy of stopping people and frisking those whom police say meet crime suspects’ descriptions. More than a half a million people, mostly black and Hispanic men, were stopped last year – unfair targets, critics say. About 10 percent of stops result in arrests.
Also posted in Esha- The Diva, The Weed Spot
Leave a comment
Issue 45 Tail of Two Cities NYC and B-More Bike Riders Correction and Updated Story
The editorial staff of Don Diva Magazine carefully reviews each issue of the magazine attempting to ensure that all of the information presented is correct and complete. Occasionally, however, mistakes get past us and make it into print. We apologize for any inconveniences these errors may have caused you.
Issue 45 Tail of Two Cities NYC and B-More Bike Riders
The writer of the Baltimore City section was Anett Snyder. Authors name was incorrectly spelled.
click here to read complete updated story
The below photos were inadvertently mis-identified:
Baltimore Rider – Brandon
Baltimore Rider – Scony
Baltimore Rider – Kev Hoon
Also posted in Corrections and Retractions
Leave a comment
10TH ANNIVERSARY BACK ISSUE SALE
Also posted in Book Reviews, Diva's Corner- (explicit), Don/ Diva Notebook, Hustlers, News U Can Use, Upcoming Events
6 Comments
Bills in Congress You Should Be Watching
Bills in Congress that could affect you or a loved one!
Although most of us are concentrating our efforts on paying bills, saving money and monitoring what is going on with the countries health care and deficit; we can’t forget about the injustices that STILL exist in the criminal justice system. Â Most of us still have family/friends that are in prison. Below are a list of bills currently in Congress that we should be monitoring via FAMM.ORG. Continue reading
Inmates: Do You Have Pending Charges?
Pending Charges or Detainers
This is an area of the law that many attorneys are not familiar with, and so do not know to check or advise their clients about. Â The result is sometimes that a defendant serves YEARS more time in prison than is necessary, all because of a simple oversight or just not knowing that something can be done.
What is a pending charge?
Sometimes when a case begins, the defendant is charged in state court with some offense and then, for any number of reasons, the case “goes federal”, and the defendant is indicted under the federal system. If that state charge is never disposed of either with a conviction or a dismissal, then it could remain “pending”.
Other times, a defendant is awaiting the conclusion of a state charge when he or she is picked up on an unrelated federal charge. Â The federal case proceeds, and nobody ever does anything with the state case because it is not worth the state’s time, given the severity of the federal case.
In either case, a pending charge, even something as petty as a simple assault case, can remain in the system, and if it does, it can have disasterous consequences for a federal inmate.
What is a Detainer?
A detainer may stem from a state charge or even a state investigation in which no charges have even been filed. Â A state agency normally notifies the Bureau of Prisons or a national computer database that a matter is pending, regardless of the progress of the matter to that point, and that agency then is notifying the world that as soon as the federal system is done with that person, this agency wants him or her. Â The Bureau of Prisons then treats the detainer the same way that they treat a pending charge.
What Difference Does it Make?
Under the rules that govern how sentence credits are given by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an inmate normally receives credit for the time he served in jail before sentencing, receives credit for up to 54 days per year for good time, and even up to one year off for participation in a drug treatment program (RDAP) in some cases.
HOWEVER, if a pending charge or a detainer shows up in the Bureau of Prisons’ computer system, the Bureau of Prisons will not and can not give any of those credits.
For an inmate sentenced to 10 years, for example, not receiving these sentence credits could mean that he or she would serve all 10 years, instead of only about 8.5 years had all sentence credits been given.
Defendants serving federal sentences should not trust their own recollection of whether there is or might be a pending charge or detainer. Â There are two reasons for this: Â Sometimes even if the inmate knows that the charge was dropped, it could still remain in the system as if it had not been. Â Additionally, in some circumstances, there are charges pending that a defendant may not even have been aware of. Â Finally, the BOP’s computer system could just show a pending charge or detainer by mistake! Â It happens! And when it does, the inmate does not get his or her sentence credits.
What Should the Inmate Do?
Every inmate in the Bureau of Prisons should go to his counselor, case manager, or unit team leader, and ask him or her to check in their computer system to see if the system shows any pending charges or detainers. Â If not, the inmate should check up on it every six months to a year to make sure that none show up. Â If a pending charge shows up in the system then the Bureau of Prisons can retroactively take away all sentence credits past and future! Â This also happens.
If the counselor, case manager, or unit team leader says that there is a pending charge or detainer, the inmate should get the case number, the agency or court, the nature of the charge, and the date of the charge and call an attorney with experience in this field immediately!
What Can an Attorney Do?
An experienced attorney can take all of the information about the pending charge, and, in most cases, get all of them dismissed or otherwise disposed of such that they will no longer be pending.  The attorney will then provide the required information to the Bureau of  Prisons, who will then remove the pending charges or detainers from their system.  As soon as all of this is done, the counselor or case manager will re-calclate the projected release date, which will often result in a HUGE reduction in the amount of time the inmage has left to serve.  In some cases, inmates who have served many years on their sentences already will find that their release date is now just around the corner instead of several years down the road!
What Will This Cost?
Different attorneys charge different rates for their services. Â Some will charge more or less, and it almost always varies based on experience. Â I have found that a good arrangement that works for me and my clients is to bill at my rate of $225.00 per hour with a 10 hour minimum. Â I have found that in most cases of this sort, everything that needs to be done is often done in around 10 hours of my time. Â Only in rare cases is it much less or much more.
Please email me with questions or for more information. Â Click on “Contact Us” on the left at the top of this page to email me, or you may email me directly at theonomist@gmail.com .
The Most Surprising but Most Common Issue in My PracticeI am always assured by the inmate or his family that there are no pending charges. Â However, when they follow my advice and check anyway, they are often surprised to find out that there are.
Over the last year, I have run into this issue more times than I can count. Â I don’t know if it is because the Bureau of Prisons is handling these differently now, or if it is because nobody has bothered to check, but by my estimate, this may affect as much as 30% of the federal inmate population. Continue reading
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN LAWYER
By: Mike Brown
Eighty percent of the people in the United States cannot afford to hire an attorney. In a court fight, 80% of the population would appear to be unarmed. You don’t have to be one of them.
With very few exceptions, you can be your own lawyer in most legal situations. This has been true in the federal courts since 1792. See 28 U.S.C. § 1654, a federal law. Many states allowed it even before then. Continue reading
FEDERAL DRUG MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES
MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES (MMS)
Mandatory Minimum Sentences (MMS) are automatically enacted when you commit certain drug crimes with specified quantities. The only way to get a lesser sentence on a MMS crime is to cooperate with the government.
Continue reading
