“What does justice mean to you?”
That is the driving question of the student-led documentary, “How Long is Long Enough: The Excessive Sentencing of Quntos & Layla.” The film was re-screened on Jan. 19 and centered stories rooted in abolition, resistance and the ongoing pursuit of how to keep a movement alive.
The film was created by UC Santa Cruz alumni Natalie Decena, Sarina Bozorgnia, Veler Brown and Aiden Olivier with support from Michael Ademaro from Georgetown Law School. The student-run team developed the documentary through UCSC’s two-quarter course, Making an Exoneree.
Through this program, students reanalyze and examine cases of wrongful convictions, utilizing visual storytelling to document the main issues, challenges, injustices and lives involved in each case. The unveilings of the course reflect broader racial disparities about who the carceral complex perceives as a threat. Studies by the NAACP find that if “African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40 percent.”
“How Long is Long Enough: The Excessive Sentencing of Quntos & Layla.”centers on the oversentencing of Quntos Wilson and Layla Roberts, two individuals who have been incarcerated since they were 18 and 19 years old. After 31 years in prison, rather than defining them by their convictions, the film allows their stories to unfold in their own words. 
Attendees watch a scene from the documentary of Layla Roberts, Layla’s mother, reflecting on the circumstances by which her son was sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
The film team, in collaboration with the Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS), held the screening at Barrios Unidos to shed light on Layla’s and Quntos’ story and fundraise for their exoneration campaign.
What sets Quntos’ and Layla’s case apart from the typical cases students examine in the Making An Exoneree course is that they never sought exoneration, but rather, resentencing, empathy and understanding.
Quntos and Layla were sentenced to life under Louisiana law. As of publication, judges in Louisiana have the jurisdiction to exercise discretion if they find a sentence to be excessive or misrepresented.
Peter Gallagher, Quntos’ and Layla’s lawyer during the creation of the film, emphasized the lack of effective representation by their former lawyer at the time of their sentencing.
“There was virtually no effort whatsoever to defend Layla or Quntos,” Gallagher stated.
Virginia Player, Quntos’ mother, shared this perspective.
“It was a bad time for young Black boys,” Player said. “Once they got out of school, there was nothing for them to do. They just had the streets.”
Player’s words are not only a mother’s sentiment; they reflect the reality of the carceral system’s disproportionate targeting of communities of color. While just under one-third of Louisiana’s population is Black, Black Louisianans account for 73 percent of life sentences at Louisiana State Penitentiary, where Quntos and Layla are still being held.
[Left to Right] Filmmakers Aiden Oliver, Sarina Bozorgnia, Natalie Decena and Veler Brown, introduce themselves and their documentary to a full house.
It was not lost on the audience that the event was intentionally hosted on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s birthday, as an emphatic reminder that justice is what people owe each other.
“Dr. King fought, not for himself, and not even for his own generation,” co-creator Sarina Bozorgnia said as they introduced the film. “He fought for our children’s children. Those children tonight are Quntos and Layla. The first thing systems of oppression often take from us is our innocence.”
According to the Sentencing Project’s national findings in a 2025 report, nearly 70,000 individuals were under the age of 25 when they were condemned to, what Layla refers to as, “death by incarceration.” Nearly one-third of incarcerated people have no chance for parole in the United States.
Attendees spill out the doorway of the Poet’s Corner to watch the film, as the event’s turnout exceeded the number of seats available.
At the heart of the event, organizers centered campaigning not only for Layla and Quntos, but also breaking the stigmatization of incarceration, allowing audience members to connect with broader themes surrounding prison abolition through a post-screening Q&A session.
The display in the main room of the Poet’s Corner showcased Layla’s passion for jewelry making alongside Quntos’s new book “This Life,” his art and his poetry. In another room at Poet’s Corner, student interns from the IAS set up a button-making station and a letter-writing table for incarcerated individuals. Despite the carceral system that hides and silences the very individuals most harmed by it, their artwork proves their lives are ones of hope and perseverance.
Zines with Quntos’ poetry and his book on display for attendees to purchase and raise funds for his and Layla’s exoneration campaign.
Towards the end of the film, Quntos expresses his longing for the space to expand his love for art.
“My purpose and talent would be communicating things that people can use to grow,” he said. “Release would make me a better artist because I would be able to taste a different day than the one I’ve been reliving for the past 30 years.”
IAS interns set up several stations for attendees to write letters to incarcerated individuals, make buttons, and write what justice means to them.
The lives of Layla and Quntos reflect those of thousands of others across the nation. Community-driven events like this one not only reveal the harsh realities of an unjust system, but also how filmmaking, poetry, and art can challenge the narratives often imposed on incarcerated individuals. These creative mediums become essential tools for telling humanizing stories — stories that resist erasure and continue beyond the moment they are first shared.
Resources to support this mission of abolition, as well as sources specifically linked to fundraisers for Quntos and Layla are listed below.
More information about Quntos’s and Layla’s experiences in the carceral complex are available at their Instagram, @free_layla_quntos
Quntos “Kunquest” Wilson and Layla Roberts — Making an Exoneree
How Long is Long Enough: The Excessive Sentencing of Quntos Wilson and Layla Roberts
