Court Opinion

ID: 4524136
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2020-04-09 19:00:41.423613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:10:04.352122
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                      No. 19-7184

BOBBY DEONTRAY WYCHE,

                    Petitioner - Appellant,

             v.

BRYAN LEE PULLEY, Administrator of Nash Correctional Institution, Nashville,
North Carolina,

                    Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at
Greensboro. Loretta C. Biggs, District Judge. (1:18-cv-01014-LCB-JLW)

Submitted: March 24, 2020                                         Decided: April 9, 2020

Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, AGEE, Circuit Judge, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit
Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Kevin P. Bradley, I, KEVIN P. BRADLEY, ATTORNEY AT LAW, Durham, North
Carolina, for Appellant.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

       Bobby Deontray Wyche seeks to appeal the district court’s order accepting the

recommendation of the magistrate judge and denying relief on Wyche’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254

(2018) 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) (2018).         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) (2018). When the district court denies relief on the merits,

a prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that reasonable jurists would find the

district court’s assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong. See Buck v.

Davis, 137 S. Ct. 759, 773-74 (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 petition 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)).

       We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Wyche has not made

the requisite showing.    Accordingly, we deny Wyche’s motion for 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

                                             2