Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-19-07546/USCOURTS-ca4-19-07546-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Kofie Akiem Jones
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 19-7546

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

KOFIE AKIEM JONES,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at 

Clarksburg. Frederick P. Stamp, Jr., Senior District Judge. (1:03-cr-00047-FPS-1; 1:16-

cv-00100-FPS)

Submitted: April 17, 2020 Decided: May 18, 2020

Before WILKINSON and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges, and SHEDD, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Kofie Akiem Jones, Appellant Pro Se.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:

Kofie Akiem Jones seeks to appeal the district court’s order adopting the magistrate 

judge’s recommendation and denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2018) motion. The 

order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. 

See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) (2018). A certificate of appealability will not issue absent 

“a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.” 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2) 

(2018). When the district court denies relief on the merits, a prisoner satisfies this standard 

by demonstrating that reasonable jurists could find the district court’s assessment of the 

constitutional claims debatable or wrong. See Buck v. Davis, 137 S. Ct. 759, 773-74 (2017). 

When the district court denies relief on procedural grounds, the prisoner must demonstrate 

both that the dispositive procedural ruling is debatable and that the motion states a 

debatable claim of the denial of a constitutional right. Gonzalez v. Thaler, 565 U.S. 134, 

140-41 (2012) (citing Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000)). 

We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Jones has not made 

the requisite showing. Accordingly, we deny a certificate of appealability, deny the 

pending motion, and dismiss the appeal. We dispense with oral argument because the facts 

and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and 

argument would not aid the decisional process. 

DISMISSED

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