Opinion
No. 10-7750.
Submitted: March 15, 2011.
Decided: March 21, 2011.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Rock Hill. Julian Abele Cook, Jr., District Judge. (0:04-cr-00353-CMC-1; 0:09-cv-70126-CMC).
Kenneth Roshaun Reid, Appellant Pro Se. Jeffrey Mikell Johnson, Assistant United States Attorney, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Before MOTZ and WYNN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.
Dismissed by unpublished PER CURIAM opinion.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
Kenneth Roshaun Reid seeks to appeal the district court's orders denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (West Supp. 2010) motion and his motion for a certificate of appealability. These orders are not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1) (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). 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, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000); see Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336-38, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (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-S5, 120 S.Ct. 1595. We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Reid 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 contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
We construe Reid's motion for a certificate of appealability, which was filed within the time limit allotted for filing a notice of appeal from the district court's order denying Reid's § 2255 motion, as a timely notice of appeal.
DISMISSED.