United States v. Lujan-Lopez

Opinion

FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS June 30, 2015

Elisabeth A. Shumaker TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 15-1124 v. (D.C. Nos. 1:14-CV-03159-RBJ and 1:12-CR-00149-RBJ-1 ) JOSE LUJAN-LOPEZ, (D. Colorado) Defendant - Appellant.

ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY

Before, HARTZ, TYMKOVICH, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges.

Defendant José Lujan-Lopez seeks a certificate of appealability (COA) to appeal

the denial of his motion for relief under 18 U.S.C. § 2255 by the United States District

Court for the District of Colorado. To obtain a COA he must show “that reasonable

jurists could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the [motion] should have

been resolved in a different manner or that the issues presented were adequate to deserve

encouragement to proceed further.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). In our view, no court could improve upon the district

court’s thorough, cogent, and sensitive opinion denying relief. To address an argument

Defendant makes on appeal, we add only that Defendant could not obtain an offense-

level decrease of more than two levels for acceptance of responsibility without a

supporting motion by the government. See USSG § 3E1.1(b). For the reasons stated in

the district court’s opinion, which we attach and incorporate, we deny a COA and dismiss

the appeal.

ENTERED FOR THE COURT

Harris L Hartz Circuit Judge