United States v. Sharone Berry

                                 UNPUBLISHED

                     UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                         FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT


                                 No. 12-7441


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                Plaintiff - Appellee,

           v.

SHARONE   JERMAINE    BERRY,    a/k/a   Shaun    Smith,   a/k/a   Jerome
Smith,

                Defendant - Appellant.



Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Newport News. Robert G. Doumar, Senior
District Judge. (4:08-cr-00043-RGD-TEM-1; 4:11-cv-00145-RGD)


Submitted:   November 20, 2012                  Decided: November 27, 2012


Before TRAXLER,      Chief     Judge,   and   SHEDD   and   FLOYD,   Circuit
Judges.


Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.


Sharone Jermaine Berry, Appellant Pro Se. Brian James Samuels,
Laura Pellatiro Tayman, Assistant United States Attorneys,
Newport News, Virginia, for Appellee.


Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:

             Sharone Jermaine Berry seeks to appeal the district

court’s order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 (West

Supp.    2012)    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 Berry has not made the requisite showing.                     Accordingly, we

deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal.                          We

dispense     with    oral     argument    because      the       facts    and    legal




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contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the

court and argument would not aid the decisional process.



                                                           DISMISSED




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