Court Opinion

ID: 152668
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2010-08-10 19:22:42+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:29.493690
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                        FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                              No. 09-7849

RONALD COULTER,

                  Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

ROBERT M. STEVENSON, Warden, BRCI,

                  Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Rock Hill.    Patrick Michael Duffy, District
Judge. (0:08-cv-02762-PMD)

Submitted:   July 19, 2010                  Decided:     August 10, 2010

Before WILKINSON and      GREGORY,   Circuit   Judges,    and   HAMILTON,
Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Ronald Coulter, Appellant Pro se. Donald John Zelenka, Deputy
Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Ronald Coulter seeks to appeal the district court’s

order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006) petition.

The order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge

issues     a     certificate       of    appealability.             See     28     U.S.C.

§ 2253(c)(1) (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 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 Coulter has not made the requisite showing.

Accordingly, we deny a certificate of appealability, deny leave

to    proceed    in      forma   pauperis,       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 the

court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                           DISMISSED

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