Mr. Gigante has been free on bail while a seemingly endless series of hearings has been held over the last six years on the competency issue.

Pettitte's short outing resolved the competency issue early, and Martínez made sure there would be no easy at-bats.

The prosecutors, Robert Laurino and Glenn D. Goldberg, decided to reschedule her appearance on the competency issue for the same day she is scheduled to appear as a witness against the four defendants.

It then moves to a Boston hospital, where Ben Cahill (Thomas Calabro), a surgeon who has some ill-defined competency issues, is dispatched on a forced leave.

Ben, who is rather smug for a surgeon with ill-defined competency issues, gets off on the wrong foot with several of the islanders, especially Jack Wald (John Savage).

But the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, vacated the stay today and sent the case to another federal judge to decide the competency issues.

A separate appeal on different competency issues is before the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Carol Berkman will hear final arguments on the competency issue on April 5.

Against a national backdrop of questions about the death penalty, spurred by DNA evidence and competency issues, Albany politicians are assessing the changing landscape in the state.

A 2002 book by trial consultant Mark C. Bardwell and criminal justice professor Bruce A. Arrigo examined the competency issues in the Ferguson case.