Ricky Brannon v. Robert Stevenson

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Motion disposition in opinion--denying for certificate of appealability Originating case number: 9:13-cv-01792-RMG Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999530921]. Mailed to: Brannon. [14-7593]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 14-7593

RICKY BRANNON,
Petitioner – Appellant,
v.
ROBERT M. STEVENSON, Warden,
Defendant - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Beaufort.
Richard Mark Gergel, District
Judge. (9:13-cv-01792-RMG)

Submitted:

February 12, 2015

Decided:

February 19, 2015

Before MOTZ, WYNN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Ricky Brannon, Appellant Pro Se. Kaycie Smith Timmons, Assistant
United States Attorney, Donald John Zelenka, Senior Assistant
Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Ricky

Brannon

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

(2012).

of

appealability.

28

U.S.C.

§ 2253(c)(1)(A)

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).
relief

on

the

demonstrating
district

merits,
that

court’s

debatable

or

a

When the district court denies

prisoner

reasonable

assessment

wrong.

Slack

satisfies

jurists

this

would

of

the

v.

McDaniel,

standard

find

constitutional
529

U.S.

by

that

the

claims

is

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 Brannon has not made the requisite showing.

Accordingly,

we deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal.
We

dispense

with

oral

argument

2

because

the

facts

and

legal

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contentions

are

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adequately

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presented

in

the

materials

before

this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED

3