Court Opinion

ID: 2673854
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2014-05-13 00:00:58.091444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:04.341711
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                              No. 13-7943

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                 Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

JESSE MORALES,

                 Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg.  Frederick P. Stamp,
Jr., Senior District Judge.     (1:06-cr-00068-FPS-3; 1:13-cv-
00005-FPS)

Submitted:   April 29, 2014                 Decided:   May 12, 2014

Before GREGORY, DUNCAN, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Jesse Morales, Appellant Pro Se.     John Castle Parr, Assistant
United States Attorney, Wheeling, West Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

              Jesse    Morales       seeks     to    appeal    the    district      court’s

order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and

denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2012) 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) (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    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 Morales 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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