Court Opinion

ID: 9375210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-25 21:00:24.013472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:56.803500
License: Public Domain

USCA4 Appeal: 22-7230      Doc: 9        Filed: 02/24/2023     Pg: 1 of 3

                                            UNPUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                              No. 22-7230

        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                            Plaintiff - Appellee,

                     v.

        KENNETH ROSHAUN REID,

                            Defendant - Appellant.

        Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Rock
        Hill. Cameron McGowan Currie, Senior District Judge. (0:04-cr-00353-CMC-1)

        Submitted: February 21, 2023                                 Decided: February 24, 2023

        Before NIEMEYER and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and MOTZ, Senior Circuit Judge.

        Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

        Kenneth Roshaun Reid, Appellant Pro Se.

        Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

                Kenneth Roshaun Reid has noted an appeal from the district court’s order

        dismissing his motion for judicial notice and to correct an unconstitutional sentence. 1

        Reid’s motion was, in substance, a successive 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. The order is not

        appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. See 28

        U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B). 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). When the district

        court denies relief on the merits, a prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that

        reasonable jurists could find the district court’s assessment of the constitutional claims

        debatable or wrong. See Buck v. Davis, 580 U.S. 100, 115-17 (2017). 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. Gonzalez v. Thaler, 565 U.S. 134, 140-41 (2012) (citing

        Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000)).

                Reid’s motion challenged the validity of his convictions and sentence and should

        have been construed as a successive § 2255 motion. 2 See Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S.

        524, 531-32 (2005); United States v. Winestock, 340 F.3d 200, 207 (4th Cir. 2003). In the

                1
                 The court’s order also dismissed Reid’s letter asking why he was not brought back
        to court for resentencing after the order denying his motion for reduction of sentence under
        the First Step Act of 2018 was vacated and his case remanded. Reid confines his appeal to
        the dismissal of his motion.
                2
                    The district court denied relief on Reid’s initial § 2255 motion on the merits in
        2010.

                                                       2
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        absence of pre-filing authorization from this Court, the district court lacked jurisdiction to

        hear Reid’s successive § 2255 motion. See 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3). 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 this court and argument would not aid the

        decisional process.

                                                                                        DISMISSED

                                                      3