Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-15-06493/USCOURTS-ca4-15-06493-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Deante Drake
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 15-6493

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

DEANTE DRAKE, a/k/a Panama, a/k/a Shawn, a/k/a Papa Bear,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern 

District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. Irene M. Keeley, 

District Judge. (1:07-cr-00053-IMK-JES-1; 1:13-cv-00253-IMKJES)

Submitted: August 20, 2015 Decided: August 24, 2015

Before DUNCAN, KEENAN, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Deante Drake, Appellant Pro Se. Shawn Angus Morgan, Assistant 

United States Attorney, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee. 

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:

Deante Drake seeks to appeal the district court’s order 

adopting the magistrate judge’s recommendation and dismissing 

his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2012) motion as successive, and the order 

denying his Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e) motion to alter or amend the 

judgment. The orders are not appealable unless a circuit 

justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. 

28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) (2012). 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) 

(2012). When the district court denies relief on the merits, a 

prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that 

reasonable jurists would find that the district court’s 

assessment of the constitutional claims is debatable or wrong. 

Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000); see Miller-El v. 

Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336-38 (2003). 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. Slack, 529 U.S. at 484-85. 

We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that

Drake has not made the requisite showing. Accordingly, we deny 

a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal. We 

dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal

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contentions are adequately presented in the materials before 

this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED

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