Opinion
Criminal Action No. 05-40011-FDS
11-20-2012
ANDRE ROSADO, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent.
ORDER ON CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY
SAYLOR, J.
On November 20, 2012, this Court issued an order dismissing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The basis for the Court's ruling is provided in its Memorandum and Order dismissing the petition.
To appeal the final order in a proceeding instituted under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, the petitioner must first obtain a Certificate of Appealability ("COA") from a circuit justice or a district court. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c). A COA will issue only if the petitioner "has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right." § 2253(c)(2). This standard is satisfied by "demonstrating that jurists of reason could disagree with the district court's resolution of [petitioner's] constitutional claims or that jurists could conclude the issues presented are adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further." Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 327 (2003) (citing Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000)).
Petitioner presented five claims in his petition, contending that: (1) that agents illegally searched his vehicle and seized evidence without probable cause, violating his Fourth Amendment rights; (2) that prosecutors intentionally used fraudulent documents in submissions to the Court, depriving him of his Fourteenth Amendment rights; (3) that there is insufficient evidence to prove Count One of the indictment, charging distribution of cocaine base; (4) that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to Fourth Amendment violations, prosecutorial misconduct, and sufficiency-of-the-evidence issues; and (5) that his sentence was improperly calculated under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). Petitioner's contentions do not present a colorable claim as to which a reasonable jurist could disagree with the Court's conclusions, at least sufficiently so to satisfy the standard, and therefore do not merit the issuance of a COA.
Accordingly, a certificate of appealability is DENIED.
So Ordered.
______________________
F. Dennis Saylor IV
United States District Judge