Court Opinion

ID: 4157829
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2017-04-04 19:01:24.925245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:42.736943
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                      No. 16-7546

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                    Plaintiff - Appellee,

             v.

RONNIE GERALD BELT,

                    Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia,
at Elkins. John Preston Bailey, District Judge. (2:13-cr-00030-JPB-RWT-1; 2:15-cv-
00087-JPB-RWT)

Submitted: March 30, 2017                                         Decided: April 4, 2017

Before TRAXLER and WYNN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Ronnie Gerald Belt, Appellant Pro Se. Stephen Donald Warner, Assistant United States
Attorney, Elkins, West Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:

       Ronnie Gerald Belt seeks to appeal the district court’s order accepting the

recommendation of the magistrate judge and denying relief on Belt’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255

(2012) motion and the district court’s 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 Belt 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 before this court and argument would not aid the

decisional process.

                                                                               DISMISSED

                                                   2