Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-09-08240/USCOURTS-ca4-09-08240-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
David Ballard
Appellee
Thomas L. McBride
Appellee
John E. McLaurin
Appellant
Howard Painter
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 09-8240

JOHN E. MCLAURIN,

Petitioner – Appellant,

v.

DAVID BALLARD, Warden, Mount Olive Correctional Complex; 

THOMAS L. MCBRIDE, Warden; HOWARD PAINTER,

Respondents – Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern 

District of West Virginia, at Charleston. John T. Copenhaver, 

Jr., District Judge. (2:00-cv-00275)

Submitted: June 22, 2010 Decided: July 2, 2010

Before KING and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior 

Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

John E. McLaurin, Appellant Pro Se. Barbara Harrison Allen, 

Assistant Attorney General, Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., OFFICE OF 

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WEST VIRGINIA, Charleston, West 

Virginia, for Appellees. 

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:

John E. McLaurin seeks to appeal the district court’s 

order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and 

denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006) petition. The 

order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues 

a certificate of appealability. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1) (2006). 

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) (2006). 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 petition 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 McLaurin 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 contentions are adequately presented in the materials 

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before the court and argument would not aid the decisional 

process.

DISMISSED

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