Court Opinion

ID: 1086169
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-10-21 19:03:13.633874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:14.835103
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                               No. 13-6975

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

CEDRIC O’NEAL BUTLER,

                Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Aiken. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior District
Judge. (1:05-cr-01220-MBS-1; 1:11-cv-02589-MBS)

Submitted:   October 8, 2013                 Decided:   October 21, 2013

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Cedric O’Neal Butler, Appellant Pro Se. Stanley Duane Ragsdale,
Assistant United States Attorney, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

            Cedric    O’Neal     Butler         seeks    to    appeal    the     district

court’s    order    dismissing      as    untimely       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 Butler 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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