Opinion ID: 778180
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Provenance of Grimes's Weapons

Text: 89 Grimes contends that he is entitled to a new trial because the government's attorney stated in summation that a certain gun possessed by Grimes was made in Italy and that others he possessed were made in California, and that those facts were not in the record. In order to prevail on such a claim, Grimes must demonstrate (1) that the prosecutor's remarks were improper and (2) that the remarks, taken in the context of the entire trial, resulted in substantial prejudice, United States v. Bautista, 23 F.3d 726, 732 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 862, 115 S.Ct. 174, 130 L.Ed.2d 110 (1994), or `so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process,' id. at 734 (quoting Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 181, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986) (quoting Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637, 643, 94 S.Ct. 1868, 40 L.Ed.2d 431 (1974))). Grimes has not met this standard. 90 Assuming that the prosecutor's references to California and Italy were improper, we cannot see that those references were fundamentally unfair or caused Grimes any substantial prejudice. The government was not required to prove where the guns were manufactured but only that they had traveled in or affected interstate or foreign commerce, see 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (unlawful for prior convicted felon to possess a firearm in or affecting commerce ... or to receive any firearm ... which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce). Given the testimony of Hamilton that Grimes bought guns from Johnson in New York, and the testimony of Hale that the guns Johnson sold in New York had been transported from the Virginia-Tennessee area, it was plainly inferable that the guns Grimes possessed had traveled in and affected interstate commerce. Accordingly, any error of the prosecutor in referring to specific points of origin for which there was no evidence in the record was entirely harmless. 91