Background
Tony Bryan Smith filed a civil complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which the district court construed as a petition under Section twenty-eight United States Code, Section two thousand two hundred fifty-four. The district court dismissed the petition as successive and unauthorized. Smith sought to appeal this order, but an appeal is not permitted unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the standard from Gonzalez versus Thaler, which requires a prisoner to demonstrate both that the dispositive procedural ruling is debatable and that the petition states a debatable claim of the denial of a constitutional right. The court independently reviewed the record and concluded that Smith had not made the requisite showing to satisfy this standard.
We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Smith has not made the requisite showing.
25-6963
What it means going forward
The dismissal prevents the petitioner from pursuing further appellate review of the district court’s decision to treat his complaint as a successive habeas petition and dismiss it.