FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT September 15, 2015
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Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v. No. 15-7035
(D.C. Nos. 6:13-CV-00493-RAW and
TOMMY BLAKE McCARY, 6:11-CR-00025-RAW-1)
(E.D. Okla.)
Defendant - Appellant.
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ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY*
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Before GORSUCH, McKAY, and BACHARACH, Circuit Judges.
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Defendant Blake McCary, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se, seeks a
certificate of appealability to appeal the district court’s denial of his § 2255 habeas
petition.
In 2009, Defendant completed the custodial portion of his sentences for
several previous convictions and was placed on supervised release. The terms of his
supervised release included random drug testing and participation in outpatient
counselling. In 2013, the government filed a petition to revoke Defendant’s
supervised release after numerous urine samples provided by Defendant tested
*
This order is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the
case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its
persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
positive for methamphetamines and Defendant was charged in Oklahoma state court
with possession of drug paraphernalia and other prohibited items.
During the revocation hearing, defense counsel stipulated the court could find
by a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged violations had taken place.
Defendant declined to speak and the court found, by a preponderance of the evidence,
that Defendant violated his conditions of supervised release. The court sentenced
Defendant to forty-eight months’ imprisonment.
In his § 2255 motion, Defendant contended his counsel was ineffective. The
district court analyzed this claim under the two-part test established in Strickland v.
Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). Under Strickland, a petitioner must show (1) “that
counsel’s performance was deficient” and (2) “that the deficient performance
prejudiced the defendant.” Id. at 687.
The court found that Defendant made an insufficient showing as to both parts
of the Strickland test because defense counsel reasonably decided to stipulate to
violations rather than futilely contest them and Defendant had not demonstrated
another course of action would have produced a different result. The district court
also rejected Defendant’s general objections to the preponderance-of-the-evidence
standard used in his supervised release revocation hearing based on this circuit’s
holding that such hearings do not entitle a defendant to a jury proceeding or to the
beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used in criminal trials. See United States v.
Cordova, 461 F.3d 1184, 1186-88 (10th Cir. 2006). Finally, the court rejected
Defendant’s claim of “actual innocence” of violating his supervised release by
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committing the charged state drug crimes because Defendant failed to adequately
support that claim and, regardless, the court had ample evidence that Defendant
violated his release conditions even without considering the state criminal charges.
After thoroughly reviewing Defendant’s arguments and the record on appeal,
we are persuaded that reasonable jurists would not debate the correctness of the
district court’s resolution of this claim. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484
(2000). Therefore, for substantially the same reasons given by the district court in its
thorough and well-reasoned opinion, we DENY Defendant’s request for a certificate
of appealability and DISMISS the appeal. We GRANT Appellant’s motion to
proceed in forma pauperis on appeal.
Entered for the Court
Monroe G. McKay
Circuit Judge
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