Court Opinion

ID: 2745526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2014-10-24 19:01:50.411201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:12.135762
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 14-7098

EDWARD STEEDLEY,

                Petitioner - Appellant,

          v.

HAROLD CLARKE, Director, V.D.O.C.,

                Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Alexandria. Gerald Bruce Lee, District
Judge. (1:13-cv-00485-GBL-JFA)

Submitted:   October 21, 2014             Decided:   October 24, 2014

Before SHEDD, DUNCAN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Edward Steedley, Appellant Pro Se. Steven Andrew Witmer, Senior
Assistant Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Edward Steedley seeks to appeal the district court’s

order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2012) petition and

he has filed an application to proceed in forma pauperis.                             The

order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues

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

(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 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 Steedley has not made the requisite showing.                        Accordingly,

we deny Steedley’s application to proceed in forma pauperis,

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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