Court Opinion

ID: 223008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2011-08-11 19:22:51+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:28:57.796652
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                             No. 11-6635

JEROME MYERS,

                Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

GREGORY KNOWLIN, Warden of Turbeville Correctional
Institution,

                Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Greenville. Cameron McGowan Currie, District
Judge. (6:09-cv-01076-CMC)

Submitted:   July 29, 2011                 Decided:   August 11, 2011

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Jerome Myers, Appellant Pro Se.  William Edgar Salter, III,
Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Jerome      Myers    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)(A)

(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     Myers       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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