Court Opinion

ID: 3208037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-05-31 19:01:03.580871+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:39:25.642643
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 15-7991

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

PAUL PHOTIADIS BOCCONE,

                Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Alexandria.   Claude M. Hilton, Senior
District Judge. (1:11-cr-00592-CMH-1; 1:15-cv-00887-CMH)

Submitted:   May 26, 2016                  Decided:   May 31, 2016

Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, and NIEMEYER and FLOYD, Circuit
Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Paul Photiadis Boccone, Appellant Pro Se.      Gregory P. Bailey,
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C.; Ruxandra
Barbulescu, Jonathan Persons Robell, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
ATTORNEY, Michael Phillip Ben’Ary, Assistant United States
Attorney, Marc Birnbaum, Special Assistant United States Attorney,
Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

     Paul Photiadis Boccone seeks to appeal the district court’s

order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2012) motion.              The

order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues

a certificate of appealability.       28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) (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 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

Boccone 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   before   this   court   and

argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                                 DISMISSED

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