Court Opinion

ID: 2655796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2014-03-06 20:13:32.353456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:14.567135
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                 No. 13-7557

COURTNEY LYLES,

                 Petitioner – Appellant,

          v.

ROBERT BOLLINGER, Interim Warden,

                 Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Beaufort.     Cameron McGowan Currie, Senior
District Judge. (9:12-cv-01667-CMC)

Submitted:   February 27, 2014                  Decided:    March 6, 2014

Before DUNCAN     and   FLOYD,    Circuit   Judges,   and   DAVIS,   Senior
Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Courtney Lyles, Appellant Pro Se. Brendan McDonald, OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Donald John Zelenka,
Senior Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Courtney Lyles 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 Lyles has not made the requisite showing.                       Accordingly, we

deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal.                          We

deny the motions for appointment of counsel and for a federal

hearing and dispense with oral argument because the facts and

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legal    contentions    are   adequately   presented    in   the   materials

before   this   court   and   argument   would   not   aid   the   decisional

process.

                                                                    DISMISSED

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