Court Opinion

ID: 2780571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-02-19 20:01:03.140963+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:59.417917
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 14-7771

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                       Plaintiff – Appellee,

          v.

LACEY LEROY MCCLAM, JR.,

                       Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Florence.    Terry L. Wooten, Chief District
Judge. (4:07-cr-01277-TLW-1; 4:13-cv-01396-TLW)

Submitted:   February 12, 2015            Decided:   February 19, 2015

Before MOTZ, WYNN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Lacey Leroy McClam, Jr., Appellant Pro Se. Alfred William Walker
Bethea, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Florence, South
Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Lacey Leroy McClam, Jr., seeks to appeal the district

court’s    order    denying     relief     on    his   28    U.S.C.      § 2255    (2012)

motion.    The order is 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 McClam has not made the requisite showing.                         Accordingly, we

deny    McClam’s     motion    for    a    certificate       of   appealability         and

dismiss the appeal.           We dispense with oral argument because the

facts    and    legal     contentions      are   adequately        presented      in    the

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materials   before   this   court   and   argument   would   not    aid   the

decisional process.

                                                                   DISMISSED

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