Court Opinion

ID: 1022070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-07-04 23:16:24.901421+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:35.148637
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                             No. 06-7872

CLIFFORD ALLEN POWERS,

                                            Petitioner - Appellant,

          versus

THOMAS MCBRIDE,

                                             Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of West Virginia, at Martinsburg. W. Craig Broadwater,
District Judge. (3:05-cv-00029-WCB-JE)

Submitted:   March 5, 2007                 Decided:   March 13, 2007

Before WILKINSON and SHEDD, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior
Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Clifford Allen Powers, Appellant Pro Se. Robert David Goldberg,
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WEST VIRGINIA, Charleston, West
Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

            Clifford    Allen   Powers     seeks    to   appeal    the   district

court’s    order   adopting      the     magistrate      judge’s    report      and

recommendation and denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2000)

petition and denying his motion to amend.                   The order is not

appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate

of appealability. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1) (2000). 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) (2000).

A prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that reasonable

jurists would find that any assessment of the constitutional claims

by   the   district    court    is   debatable      or   wrong    and    that   any

dispositive procedural ruling by the district court is likewise

debatable.    Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336-38 (2003);

Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000); Rose v. Lee, 252 F.3d

676, 683-84 (4th Cir. 2001).           We have independently reviewed the

record and conclude Powers 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

contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the

court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                                         DISMISSED

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