United States v. Deshea Faulk

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 11-6495 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DESHEA ROBIN FAULK, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. N. Carlton Tilley, Jr., Senior District Judge. (1:05-cr-00325-NCT-2; 1:08-cv- 00559-NCT-PTS) Submitted: October 18, 2011 Decided: October 20, 2011 Before WILKINSON, MOTZ, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges. Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Deshea Robin Faulk, Appellant Pro Se. Angela Hewlett Miller, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Deshea Robin Faulk seeks to appeal the district court’s order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and dismissing as untimely his 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 (West Supp. 2011) motion. The order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) (2006). 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) (2006). When the district court denies relief on the merits, a prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that reasonable jurists would find that the district court’s assessment of the constitutional claims is debatable or wrong. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 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 motion 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 Faulk has not made the requisite showing. Accordingly, we deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal. We deny Faulk’s motions for a transcript and for discovery at government expense and we dispense with oral argument because the facts and 2 legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. DISMISSED 3