Court Opinion

ID: 2653077
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2014-02-13 01:00:45.071806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:58.806655
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 13-7610

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

SHAWNTAY LAKEITH SWANN,

                Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle
District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. Thomas D. Schroeder,
District Judge. (1:06-cr-00443-TDS-1; 1:10-cv-00150-TDS-JLW)

Submitted:   January 31, 2014             Decided:   February 12, 2014

Before KING, GREGORY, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Shawntay Lakeith Swann, Appellant Pro Se.    Angela Hewlett
Miller, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North
Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

            Shawntay Lakeith Swann 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 Swann has not made the requisite showing.                          Accordingly, we

deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal.                             We

deny Swann’s motion for appointment of counsel.                            We dispense

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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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