Court Opinion

ID: 205024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2011-02-17 19:31:39+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:27:46.564754
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 10-6750

WELDON W. STEWART, JR., a/k/a Weldon Stewart,

                Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

MCKITHER BODISON, Warden Lieber Correctional Institution,

                Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Anderson.    Sol Blatt, Jr., Senior District
Judge. (8:09-cv-00842-SB)

Submitted:   February 10, 2011            Decided:   February 17, 2011

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

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Weldon W. Stewart, Jr., Appellant Pro Se. Samuel Creighton
Waters, Assistant Attorney General, Donald John Zelenka, Deputy
Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Weldon W. Stewart, Jr., seeks to appeal the district

court’s    order    adopting     the     report      and    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.                           See 28

U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1) (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 Stewart 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

                                            2
before   the   court   and   argument   would   not   aid   the   decisional

process.

                                                                   DISMISSED

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