New Orleans, June 12 (RHC)-- Louisiana has delayed the release of former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, the longest-serving U.S. prisoner in solitary confinement, after appealing a judge’s order for his freedom.

Earlier this year, a Louisiana grand jury re-indicted Woodfox for the 1972 murder of a prison guard, a crime for which he and his late, fellow Angola 3 member Herman Wallace maintained they were framed for their political activism.

Wallace died on October 1, 2013, just three days after he was released from prison.

On Monday, Federal Judge James Brady not only called for Woodfox’s release, but also barred a retrial. Woodfox’s two previous convictions in the case were both overturned. But Louisiana filed an appeal to the Fifth Circuit, and that court issued a stay on Judge Brady’s order.