Court Opinion

ID: 822798
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-02-28 20:07:33.444409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:15.140410
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                        FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                              No. 12-7635

DARRELL LEWIS STURKEY,

                  Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

MICHAEL MCCALL,

                  Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Rock Hill.   Terry L. Wooten, Chief District
Judge. (0:11-cv-02462-TLW)

Submitted:   February 26, 2013              Decided:   February 28, 2013

Before MOTZ, WYNN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Darrell Lewis Sturkey, Appellant Pro Se.    Donald John Zelenka,
Senior Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

              Darrell     Lewis    Sturkey        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     (2006)

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) (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 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 Sturkey 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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