Court Opinion

ID: 3216548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-06-23 19:01:02.634028+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:39:41.269284
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                               No. 16-6212

MARCUS ANTWON GREENE,

                Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

WILLIE EAGLETON,    as   the    Warden   of   Evans   Correctional
Institution,

                Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Florence.   David C. Norton, District Judge.
(4:15-cv-02043-DCN)

Submitted:   June 21, 2016                    Decided:   June 23, 2016

Before DUNCAN, KEENAN, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Marcus Antwon Greene, 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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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:

      Marcus Antwon Greene 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 (2012) 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)

(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 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

Greene has not made the requisite showing.                   Accordingly, we deny

a certificate of appealability, deny Greene’s motion to compel,

and dismiss the appeal.               We dispense with oral argument because

the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the

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materials   before   this   court   and   argument   would   not    aid   the

decisional process.

                                                                   DISMISSED

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