Amnesty regulation in cannabis law occupies the judiciary

The review of tens of thousands of judgments in the course of the extensive legalization of cannabis is exacerbating the already very high workload of the public prosecutor's offices in Saxony. The "immense" effort is causing a "considerable amount of work" for public prosecutors and is also keeping the administration of justice and offices very busy, as the Public Prosecutor General's Office announced on request.

Over 29,200 pending criminal proceedings have so far been examined for possible effects of the Cannabis Act. As of mid-July, this included 673 cases with remission of sentence and 1,030 cases in which the sentences had to be reduced or redetermined by the court.

So far, eleven prisoners have been released due to remission of sentence or because the actual time served is longer than the court-ordered sentence. However, another person remained behind bars for a different matter.

"Many additional cases" for courts

The reason for the file check is the amnesty regulation for old cases contained in the new law. It applies in particular to preliminary proceedings that are still ongoing and sentences in which fines have not yet been paid or prison sentences have not yet been served. These proceedings must be reviewed in order to clarify whether the sentences are fully or partially covered by the intended amnesty.

With the already strained staff situation, this leads to growing mountains of files, while other investigative cases remain unresolved. However, the Public Prosecutor General's Office is not yet aware of any negative consequences. The Ministry of Justice speaks of "very considerable additional work" that "cannot be avoided despite intensive preparation".

A ministry spokesperson said that the criminal courts would be faced with "a large number of additional cases". And when the regulation on the deletion of entries from the Federal Central Criminal Register comes into force on 1 January 2025, a further increase in the additional workload in public prosecutor's offices is expected.