She fought to bring the man she loves home from prison after a landmark court ruling. But lawmakers’ inaction has left her in limbo.
July 28, 2026
The Philadelphia Inquirer: “The phone rang at lunchtime, the way it did every day. Carisia Magobet answered within seconds.
An automated voice spoke first: This call is from a Pennsylvania state correctional institution.
Then his.
‘May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you, my love,’ Matthew Garcia said in Arabic.
They had only 15 minutes, and for once, Magobet did not spend the first of them on small talk. There was no good way to tell him what she knew: State lawmakers had gone home the night before without taking the vote that the couple had hoped would bring him home….
Beneath the Capitol rotunda, Magobet met Saleem Holbrook, the executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center, which represented Lee before the Supreme Court. He told Magobet he knew Garcia from their years in prison together.
‘If there’s a person who’s earned being able to come home,’ he said, ‘it’s Matt.'”