Court Opinion

ID: 4156436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2017-03-29 19:00:54.242183+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:40.346545
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                 No. 16-6555

PHILLIP BYRD,

                 Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

JOSEPH MCFADDEN,

                 Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Rock Hill. R. Bryan Harwell, District Judge.
(0:14-cv-04864-RBH)

Submitted:   March 20, 2017                    Decided:     March 29, 2017

Before TRAXLER     and   AGEE,    Circuit   Judges,   and   DAVIS,   Senior
Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Phillip Byrd, Appellant Pro Se.     Donald John Zelenka, Senior
Assistant Attorney General, William Edgar Salter, III, Assistant
Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

       Phillip Byrd 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 (2012) 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) (2012).

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) (2012).                  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

Byrd has not made the requisite showing.                     Accordingly, we deny

Byrd’s motion for 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   this   court   and   argument   would   not   aid   the   decisional

process.

                                                                    DISMISSED

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