COMM 103 Lecture 1: Persuasive Speech Outline
Alexa Jury
Communication 103
Persuasive Outline, Stock Issues
March 23, 2018
General Purpose: To persuade
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Attention Gainer: Did you know that in the United States each year, there are children as
young as 13 that are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any chance for
release? Right now, “Approximately 2,570 children are sentenced to juvenile life without parole
or "JLWOP" in the United States” (ACLU). Since the average life expectancy (men and women
combined) in the United States is 78.74 years (World Bank), that means that a young person
incarcerated in their teens could spend 60+ years in prison.
B. Reason to Listen: There are some states that have banned JLWOP, but there are still
remaining about 30 states which still allow the sentence. The death penalty for juvenile
offenders has been banned in all the states. Three states--Pennsylvania, Michigan, and
Louisiana-- account for almost two-thirds of all the JLWOP sentences.
C. Thesis statement: My name is Alexa Jury and today I will be asking you to open your eyes
to a growing problem going on with today’s youth and how they are being given life sentences
without any chance of parole. There is dissent to this practice both by mental health
professionals who emphasize that the brain and reasoning ability of a juvenile is different than
the brain and reasoning of adults. In addition, the justice system at the Supreme Court level has
issued opinions that are opposed to mandatory life sentences for juveniles.
D. Preview your Main Points: JLWOP are still very common today with a few thousand
children living their lives in prisons around the country because of choices they made when they
had not even hit puberty yet. It is still a current problem today because our country does not
know what to do with these adolescents because they have committed serious crimes. I also will
include reasons on how this issue came to be and the importance to our youth and how they have
been failed. Today I am going to offer a solution that I hope you will take initiative towards as
well.
II. BODY
A. Main Point # 1 (Problems/Harms) Imagine being 13 years old again. Can you remember
what you were like? Maybe you grew up in a home with loving parents who were supportive
and provided for you, but there are kids who were not so lucky.
1. Information (sub-point): The juvenile justice system was established over 100 years ago in
the United States to help prevent children from being caught in the adult world. It was said that
the courts helped recognize, “that the adolescent brain is not fully matured, leaving teenagers less
risk-averse, less able to weigh consequences and, possibly, less culpable” (Walshe, 2012, para.
7). This separate system has now disassembled, leaving juveniles with heartbreaking
consequences. Going back to my main point about adolescents who grow up not being so lucky,
many of these juveniles who were/are sentenced for murder, came from extremely abusive
households. There are hundreds of juveniles who were given these sentences because of murders
they committed as a last resort. They had parents who would sexually, emotionally, and
physically abuse their children until their breaking point and the only recourse these kids had
was to end it once and for all because of the systems that failed them. In the case of Jacob Ind,
who was convicted of the murder of his mother and step-father at the age of 15, he had been
abused by his parents for years. His brother, Charles, testified on being abused at his trial
saying, “"He would wait until we got home, oftentimes sneaking up behind me or Jacob and
throwing us into the bathroom -- literally taking us by the shoulders and tossing us into the
bathroom. And there he would hit us across the face and body and say, 'Get on the toilet,' and he
would pull the ropes out from underneath the credenza” (Ind, 1994).
2. Information (sub-point): In the United States today, we have a few thousand juveniles who
are serving life sentences for crimes they committed. Many of these juveniles, who are now
full-grown adults, have grown up in a prison. Some of these inmates had not even committed the
actual crimes themselves, but were witnesses and/or accomplices of the crimes of others,
therefore letting the courts give the same mandatory life sentences to them as the ones who
committed the crimes themselves. One example of the unfair juvenile sentences is Robert
Holbrook. Holbrook, on his 16th birthday, was involved with a drug deal gone wrong. He was
the “look out” for his buddies who were making a drug deal when it turned into a murder.
Holbrook was not a witness to the crime, but because he was associated with the criminals, he
was given the same mandatory sentence of life without parole. According to The Guardian
(2012), “In Robert's case, even though the judge alluded to his young age and pointed out that he
was the least culpable of all the defendants, there was no opportunity anywhere in the process to
exercise judicial discretion” (Walshe, para. 5).
Document Summary
Right now, approximately 2,570 children are sentenced to juvenile life without parole or jlwop in the united states (aclu). The death penalty for juvenile offenders has been banned in all the states. It is still a current problem today because our country does not know what to do with these adolescents because they have committed serious crimes. I also will include reasons on how this issue came to be and the importance to our youth and how they have been failed. Today i am going to offer a solution that i hope you will take initiative towards as well. Body: main point # 1 (problems/harms) imagine being 13 years old again. It was said that the courts helped recognize, that the adolescent brain is not fully matured , leaving teenagers less risk-averse, less able to weigh consequences and, possibly, less culpable (walshe, 2012, para. This separate system has now disassembled, leaving juveniles with heartbreaking consequences.
