California Legal Brief

The Rule of People v. Demolle is that a suspect's consent to provide a blood sample is not the product of an unlawful detention where the encounter remains consensual, under circumstances where a reasonable person would feel free to leave or terminate the encounter despite being taken to a police station and briefly held in locked interview rooms.

The Rule of People v. Bertsch and Hronis is that a defendant's extreme religious beliefs alone do not render him mentally incompetent under Penal Code section 1367 if he is unwilling, rather than unable, to cooperate with counsel, under circumstances where the defendant understands the proceedings and can rationally assist in his defense despite his religious convictions.