 His council successfully appealed to the Supreme Court for a retrial.As a result of the court's review of his case, a precedent was set in state criminal law that ""when a party on trial avails himself of the recent statute allowing an accused to be a witness on his own behalf, he is not disqualified to testify by reason of a former conviction or felony"".On May 7, 1873, officials announced that Heinrichs would be committed to the insane asylum at Wards Island.