US v. Claude Cooley
Filing
920090924
UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 09-7005
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. CLAUDE VANCE COOLEY, Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Statesville. Graham C. Mullen, Senior District Judge. (5:91-cr-00054-GCM-1; 5:09-cv-00049-GCM)
Submitted:
August 31, 2009
Decided:
September 24, 2009
Before MOTZ and GREGORY, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.
Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Claude Vance Cooley, Appellant Pro Se. Amy Elizabeth Ray, Assistant United States Attorney, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM: Claude Vance Cooley seeks to appeal the district
court's order construing his "Independent Equitable Action" as a successive 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 (West Supp. 2009) motion, and
dismissing it on that basis. a circuit justice or
The order is not appealable unless judge issues a certificate of
appealability.
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." (2006). 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2)
A prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating
that reasonable jurists would find that any assessment of the constitutional claims by the district court is debatable or
wrong and that any dispositive procedural ruling by the district court is likewise debatable. Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S.
322, 336-38 (2003); Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000); Rose v. Lee, 252 F.3d 676, 683-84 (4th Cir. 2001). We have
independently reviewed the record and conclude that the district court's construction of Cooley's action as a successive § 2255 motion is neither debatable nor wrong. argument (2003), on appeal, him Castro no v. United as its Contrary to Cooley's States, 540 U.S. of 375
affords
benefit
requirement
notice
before a pleading is construed as a § 2255 motion applies only to a pleading treated as the litigant's first § 2255 motion. Because Cooley had earlier pursued § 2255 relief, the pleading 2
recharacterized Cooley's
by
the § 2255
district motion. and
court
was
not
construed we deny
as a We
initial of
Accordingly, dismiss the the
certificate dispense
appealability oral argument
appeal. and
with
because
facts
legal
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED
3
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