United States v. Ricardo Maxwell (97-3196) Alvin Cordell (97-3482)

OPINION

WELLFORD, Circuit Judge.

Defendants Alvin Cordell and Ricardo Maxwell appeal their convictions for drug offenses on several grounds. Cordell makes four arguments: (1) that the prosecutor violated his right to equal protection when he exercised a peremptory strike to exclude a single juror, who was the only remaining black member of the venire; (2) that the prosecutor impermissibly struck two other jurors, who were eighteen and twenty-one years old, respectively, on the basis of their age; (3) that he should not have received the mandatory life sentence contemplated by 21 U.S.C. §…