042589P.pdf   08/08/2005  USA  v.  Richard Davis
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  04-2589
   Eastern District of Missouri   
   [PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Bright and Melloy, Circuit 
   Judges] 
   Criminal case - criminal law. District court did not abuse its discretion 
   in denying defendant's motion for a new trial based on the claim that the 
   prosecutor's comments during closing argument were an improper attack 
   on defense counsel as the court granted defendant's objections to the 
   remarks, admonished the prosecutor, and instructed the jury to disregard 
   the remarks; defendant's suspended state court sentence was a final 
   sentence for purposes of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(d) and could serve as the 
   basis for seeking an increased mandatory minimum sentence; fact of a 
   prior conviction does not need to be submitted to a jury under Blakely. 
   Judge Bright, concurring.