UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 12-7659
MARIE THERESE ASSA’AD-FALTAS,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; CITY OF COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
Respondents – Appellees.
No. 12-7664
MARIE THERESE ASSA’AD-FALTAS,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; CITY OF COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
Respondents - Appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District
of South Carolina, at Aiken. Terry L. Wooten, Chief District
Judge. (1:12-cv-02294-TLW; 1:12-cv-02228-TLW)
Submitted: March 28, 2013 Decided: April 1, 2013
Before NIEMEYER, KING, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.
Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Marie Therese Assa’ad-Faltas, Appellant Pro Se.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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PER CURIAM:
In these consolidated appeals, Marie Therese Assa’ad-
Faltas seeks to appeal the district court’s orders accepting the
recommendations of the magistrate judge and denying relief on
her 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006) petitions. In Appeal No. 12-7659,
Assa’ad-Faltas has also filed motions to exceed the length
limitations for her informal brief, and to amend or correct her
informal brief, and in Appeal No. 12-7664, she has filed an
application to proceed in forma pauperis, as well as a motion to
exceed the length limitations for her informal brief.
The orders Assa’ad-Faltas seeks to appeal are not
appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a
certificate of appealability. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(A) (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 petition states a debatable
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claim of the denial of a constitutional right. Slack, 529 U.S.
at 484-85.
We have independently reviewed the record and conclude
that Assa’ad-Faltas has not made the requisite showing.
Accordingly, although we grant Assa’ad-Faltas’s motions to
exceed the length limitations for her informal brief and to
amend or correct her informal brief in Appeal No. 12-7659, and
grant her application to proceed in forma pauperis and her
motion to exceed the length limitations for her informal brief
in Appeal No. 12-7664, we deny a certificate of appealability
and dismiss the appeals. We dispense with oral argument because
the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the
materials before this court and argument would not aid the
decisional process.
DISMISSED
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