Court Opinion

ID: 2646799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-12-20 01:00:38.870143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:32:33.033993
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 13-7010

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

FLINT DAVIS RATLIFF,

                Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Florence.    Terry L. Wooten, Chief District
Judge. (4:08-cr-00372-TLW-3; 4:11-cv-70034-TLW)

Submitted:   December 17, 2013            Decided: December 19, 2013

Before KING, GREGORY, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Flint Davis Ratliff, Appellant Pro Se.   Alfred William Walker
Bethea, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Florence, South
Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

            Flint   Davis          Ratliff       seeks    to    appeal     the    district

court’s orders denying relief on his 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 (West

Supp. 2013) motion.                The orders are not appealable unless a

circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability.

28    U.S.C.     § 2253(c)(1)(B)             (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 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 Ratliff 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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