Grooms v. Johnson

Filing 920070910

Opinion

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 07-6805

ROBERT L. GROOMS, JR., Plaintiff - Appellant, versus GENE JOHNSON, Director, Virginia Director of Corrections; DORIS L. EWING, Court and Legal Office Manager, Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Roanoke. Jackson L. Kiser, Senior District Judge. (7:07-cv-00228-jlk)

Submitted:

August 30, 2007

Decided:

September 10, 2007

Before MICHAEL, KING, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Robert L. Grooms, Jr., Appellant Pro Se.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

PER CURIAM: Robert L. Grooms, Jr., seeks to appeal the district court's order denying without prejudice relief on his complaint styled as an action arising under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000). Because

the complaint raised habeas claims, we find the district court properly construed the claims as more appropriately presented in a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2000) petition. Further, because Grooms has

filed previous § 2254 petitions raising the same or similar claims, and this court has denied his application to file a successive § 2254 petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (2000), the action was properly dismissed as successive. Accordingly, we deny a

certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal.

We dispense

with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. DISMISSED

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