 Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell promised to appeal the District Court's decision, saying, “We feel confident that we will again prevail at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.However, if we do not, we are fully prepared and willing to retry this murderer again.”

On November 20, 2014, a three-person panel of Fifth Circuit judges unanimously upheld the lower court's opinion that Woodfox's conviction had been secured through racially discriminatory means.The panel found that the selection of a white grand-jury foreperson in the 1993 indictment hearing prior to trial formed part of a discriminatory pattern in that area of Louisiana.