Court Opinion

ID: 2771857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-01-21 20:00:50.788414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:47:35.242089
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                       FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                            No. 14-7482

KEVIN A. REILLY,

                      Petitioner – Appellant,

            v.

LARRY CARTLEDGE, Warden of Perry Correctional Institute,

                      Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Rock Hill.       Solomon Blatt, Jr., Senior
District Judge. (0:12-cv-03503-SB)

Submitted:   January 15, 2015             Decided:   January 21, 2015

Before WILKINSON and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, Senior
Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Kevin A.     Reilly, Appellant    Pro Se. Alphonso Simon, Jr.,
Assistant    Attorney  General,    Donald  John  Zelenka, Senior
Assistant    Attorney General,    Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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

               Kevin A. Reilly seeks to appeal the district court’s

order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and

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

(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 Reilly 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 contentions are adequately

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presented in the materials before this court and argument would

not aid the decisional process.

                                                      DISMISSED

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