Court Opinion

ID: 623647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2012-02-28 01:01:35+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:04.906946
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 11-7303

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

DEONTA LAMONT CARPENTER,

                Defendant – Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Columbia. Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., District
Judge. (3:07-cr-01521-JFA-1; 3:10-cv-70286-JFA)

Submitted:   February 23, 2012            Decided:   February 27, 2012

Before MOTZ, DAVIS, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Deonta Lamont Carpenter, Appellant Pro Se.        Robert Claude
Jendron,   Jr.,   Stanley  Duane   Ragsdale,   William   Kenneth
Witherspoon, Assistant United States Attorneys, Columbia, South
Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

             Deonta Lamont Carpenter seeks to appeal the district

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

Supp.    2011)    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)         (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 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

Carpenter 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

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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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