Court Opinion

ID: 3008847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-10-08 19:00:49.30804+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:37.899273
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                      FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 14-7616

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

          v.

NIGEL CLARKE,

                Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, at Greenville.   Malcolm J. Howard,
Senior District Judge. (4:02-cr-00060-H-5; 4:10-cv-00195-H)

Submitted:   September 28, 2015           Decided:   October 8, 2015

Before GREGORY, AGEE, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Nigel Clarke, Appellant Pro Se.        Rudolf A. Renfer, Jr.,
Assistant United States Attorney, Michael Gordon James, Kimberly
Ann Moore, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North
Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

       Nigel Clarke seeks to appeal the district court’s order

denying his Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) motion to vacate the district

court’s order dismissing as untimely 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

Clarke 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

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contentions   are   adequately   presented   in   the   materials   before

this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

                                                               DISMISSED

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