Court Opinion

ID: 1087067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-10-25 18:36:58.446755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:53:11.664059
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                             No. 13-7021

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                 Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

JERRY JOHNSON,

                 Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. John Preston Bailey,
Chief District Judge.   (1:07-cr-00104-JPB-JES-5; 1:12-cv-00045-
JPB-JES)

Submitted:   October 22, 2013              Decided:   October 25, 2013

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Jerry Johnson, Appellant Pro Se.    Michael D. Stein, Assistant
United States Attorney, Wheeling, West Virginia; Zelda Elizabeth
Wesley, Assistant United States Attorney, Clarksburg, West
Virginia, for Appellee

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

            Jerry        Johnson      seeks    to    appeal       the    district      court’s

order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and

denying    relief        on    his   28   U.S.C.A.        §    2255     (West   Supp.    2013)

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 Johnson 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

this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                               DISMISSED

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