Opinion

Brown v. Lewis

  • 427 F. App'x 258
Court
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Filed
May 4, 2011
Status
Unpublished
On the bench
Wilkinson, Niemeyer, Shedd
Cited by
0 cases
Authority
More cited than 10.5%

The opinion

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 11-6271

JEROME JULIUS BROWN, SR.,

Petitioner – Appellant,

v.

PATRICE E. LEWIS, Judge; BEN C. CLYBURN, Chief Judge;

DOUGLAS F. GANSLER; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MARYLAND,

Respondents – Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of

Maryland, at Baltimore. Benson Everett Legg, District Judge.

(1:10-cv-03349-BEL)

Submitted: April 22, 2011 Decided: May 4, 2011

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Jerome Julius Brown, Sr., Appellant Pro Se.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

PER CURIAM:

Jerome Julius Brown, Sr. seeks to appeal the district

court’s order denying his motion to reopen after the district

court dismissed his 28 U.S.C.A. § 2241 (West 2006 & Supp. 2010)

petition. The order is not appealable unless a circuit justice

or judge issues a certificate of appealability. 28 U.S.C.

§ 2253(c)(1) (2006); Reid v. Angelone, 369 F.3d 363, 369 (4th

Cir. 2004). 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

claim of the denial of a constitutional right. Slack, 529 U.S.

at 484-85. We have independently reviewed the record and

conclude that Brown 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

2

before the court and argument would not aid the decisional

process.

DISMISSED

3

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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