Earlier this week, a federal judge ordered that Woodfox be released after serving more than 40 years in solitary confinement. The judge also barred the state from retrying his case a third time.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell appealed the judge’s order, and a three-judge appeals panel temporarily blocked Woodfox's release. That panel extended the order Friday until the state's appeal is resolved.
Woodfox was sentenced to solitary confinement in 1972, along with Robert King and Herman Wallace, for allegedly killing a prison guard at a state penitentiary in Angola. King was released in 2001, after a successful appeal to the federal court system, and Wallace was released in 2013.
Woodfox is the believed to be the longest-serving solitary confinement prisoner in United States history.
