USCA4 Appeal: 23-6132 Doc: 13 Filed: 07/12/2024 Pg: 1 of 2

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-6132

MIKE TYREL SALLEY, Petitioner - Appellant, v. WARDEN WALLACE, KCI, Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Charleston. Richard Mark Gergel, District Judge. (2:21-cv-03457-RMG)

Submitted: July 10, 2024 Decided: July 12, 2024

Before AGEE and HARRIS, Circuit Judges, and MOTZ, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Christopher Reginald Geel, GEEL & GENTRY, LLC, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellant.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

USCA4 Appeal: 23-6132 Doc: 13 Filed: 07/12/2024 Pg: 2 of 2

PER CURIAM: Mike Tyrel Salley seeks to appeal the district court’s order accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge and denying relief on Salley’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. The order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(A). 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, as here, the district court denies relief on the merits, a prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that reasonable jurists could find the district court’s assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong. See Buck v. Davis, 580 U.S. 100, 115-17 (2017).

We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Salley has not made the requisite showing. Accordingly, we deny the pending motion to appoint counsel, 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 this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED