Once more Ramadan Abdullah was found Incompetent to stand trial for the 2001 murder of Fresno County sheriff deputy Erik Telen. Abdullah, now 25, faced trail for capital murder, and if convicted he may have faced murder by the state.

During the jury selection process that began earlier this month, Abdullah entered a room to face 450 possible jurors, myself being one of them. Abdullah, who for lack of a better word looked small in a room full of people who would possibly hold his fate in their hands. Abdullah stood when he was asked to stand, sat when he was asked to sit and quietly left when it was time to leave, looked like he felt much the same way I felt that day. The entire event seemed surreal. It was almost like it was a reenactment of what was supposed to happen in such occasions. The process being acted out for all of us, Abdullah included.

Shortly after the jury selection was to be started it was postponed due to one psychiatrist's finding that Abdullah was incompetent. Additional psychiatrists were appointed to examine Abdullah and today (Tuesday, Oct. 26) due to Abdullah's incompetence the jury panel was dismissed.

The trail, which was sure to be a contentious one, with prosecutors looking to associate Abdullah with the wider "War on Terror." In court papers filed by prosecutors referred to Sheikh Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, who Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was trying to interview when he was killed in 2002.

Peter Jones, one of Abdullah's attorneys expressed concern to the presiding judge at the time "They are trying to exploit some fuzzy terrorist angle to some degree, and that concerns me…."

Telen was survived by his three children and his wife Shelley.
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Carlos Fierro is the editor of The Undercurrent. A more in depth treatment of this story and other can be found on The Undercurrent web site FresnoUndercurrent.net