Sign onto our letter writing campaign to drop the charges on ManMan here!!

Lourease "ManMan" Wilson is being overcharged and tried as an adult for an incident that allegedly happened when he was 16 in which no one was injured. He has no criminal history apart from one, non-violent offense. Lourease already had to spend 13 months in detention just waiting for the court to decide whether he'd be charged as an adult or a juvenile. During this time, he was described as a model inmate but the decision was still made to charge Lourease as an adult. Locking him up for 13 months without even knowing the full extent of his charges is an inhumane way to treat a child.

The sentencing project, in its article ‘Automatically Charging Youth as Adults,’ explains how overcharging children is harmful to everyone. It affects public safety because kids charged as adults are more likely to reoffend than kids in similar situations held in juvenile courts. It also significantly harms the children being tried. The article states, “Youth charged as adults who are incarcerated in an adult prison or jail for any period are at an increased risk of physical and sexual abuse and negative mental health impacts.” Trying kids as adults hurts them, ruins their lives, and harms our community as a whole! 

Lourease was 14 years old when his best friend Jor’Dell Richardson, also 14, was murdered by the Aurora Police who faced no accountability for that killing. It’s traumatic to lose a best friend and even more traumatic to watch as the system lets your best friend's murderers walk free.This was only one of many very traumatic events in Lourease's life and it's unreasonable to expect children to manage these types of tragedies without proper support from their community. This shouldn't ruin his life. 

Since being released on bond, Lourease has been doing charity work, meeting with public figures to tell his story, and teaching other kids not to follow his path. He has become a mentor and pillar of his community who is determined to learn from his mistakes and help others learn from them too. Punishing him further at this point is cruelty, plain and simple. Taking him away from the community that loves him is a crime against the community itself.