Gregory Wardell Driver v. Harold W. Clarke

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 2:14-cv-00590-RAJ-LRL Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999829848]. Mailed to: Gregory Wardell Driver 306 Beech Street Suffolk, VA 23434. [16-6103]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 16-6103

GREGORY WARDELL DRIVER,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
HAROLD
W.
CLARKE,
Corrections,

Director,

Virginia

Department

of

Respondent – Appellee,
and
BILL WATSON; PORTSMOUTH CIRCUIT COURT,
Respondents.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Norfolk. Raymond A. Jackson, District
Judge. (2:14-cv-00590-RAJ-LRL)

Submitted:

May 18, 2016

Decided:

May 23, 2016

Before SHEDD, DIAZ, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Gregory Wardell Driver, Appellant Pro Se.
Kathleen Beatty
Martin, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia,
for Appellee.

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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

2

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PER CURIAM:
Gregory Wardell Driver 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

prisoner

reasonable

assessment

wrong.

When the district court denies

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
Driver has not made the requisite showing.

3

Accordingly, we deny

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a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal as moot. *
We

dispense

contentions

with
are

oral

argument

adequately

because

presented

in

the

facts

and

the

materials

legal
before

this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED

*

We note
November 2015.

that

Driver’s

supervised

4

probation

ended

in