Background
Kenneth Roshaun Reid filed a motion in the District Court for the District of South Carolina, styled as a writ of mandamus under Section thirteen sixty-one of Title twenty-eight of the United States Code. The district court construed the filing as a motion under Section two thousand two hundred fifty-five of Title twenty-eight and dismissed it as a successive and unauthorized habeas corpus petition. Reid sought to appeal this order.
The court’s reasoning
The court noted that an order dismissing a Section two thousand two hundred fifty-five motion is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. Under Section two thousand two hundred fifty-three of Title twenty-eight, such a certificate issues only upon a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. The court applied the standard from Gonzalez versus Thaler, requiring the prisoner to demonstrate that the dispositive procedural ruling is debatable and that the motion states a debatable claim of the denial of a constitutional right. After independently reviewing the record, the court concluded Reid had not made the requisite showing.
What it means going forward
The dismissal prevents the prisoner from pursuing further appellate review of the district court’s procedural dismissal of his successive habeas motion.
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