Court Opinion

ID: 619375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2011-12-20 21:08:02+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:48.436350
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                             No. 11-7084

RAQIB ABDUL AL-AMIN,

                       Petitioner – Appellant,

          v.

ROBERT M. STEVENSON, III, Warden,

                       Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Rock Hill. Cameron McGowan Currie, District
Judge. (0:10-cv-02023-CMC)

Submitted:   December 15, 2011             Decided:   December 20, 2011

Before GREGORY, SHEDD, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Raqib Abdul Al-Amin, Appellant Pro Se. Donald John Zelenka,
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

              Raqib      Abdul     Al-Amin         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 Al-Amin has not made the requisite showing.

Accordingly, we deny Al-Amin’s motion to supplement the record,

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 the

court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                           DISMISSED

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