Though the choose had steeled himself for a grueling struggle, the hashish case was over in mere minutes.
The defendant had been caught in his mother and father’ home with 7.5 ounces of marijuana, and the choose was preparing for the prosecution to strive him as an grownup since he was simply 18, and technically could possibly be held accountable underneath the grownup legal guidelines.
However the district lawyer mentioned he deliberate to strive the case underneath Germany’s youth legal guidelines.
That gave Decide Andreas Müller a gap. Presiding over the courtroom within the conventional black gown and white tie, he instantly threw out the case, citing a youth court docket statute that encourages rehabilitation relatively than punishment.
“Perhaps at some point, once you’ve had the prospect to be taught to develop into an ready businessman, you may develop into a hashish entrepreneur,” Mr. Müller advised the defendant, eliciting chuckles within the courtroom in Bernau bei Berlin, a small, picturesque group north of the German capital. The defendant, Justin H., whose surname is protected by Germany’s strict privateness legal guidelines, was too surprised to react apart from to nod.
Decide Müller is known in Germany for his relentless criticism of the regulation criminalizing hashish possession. Usually with apparent anger in his voice, he has argued in opposition to Germany’s hashish regulation in quite a few TV dialogue panels; at pro-cannabis demonstrations; in a guide; and even in a rap video, all whereas serving as an energetic choose. In his courtroom, the place he hears primarily youth but in addition grownup circumstances, he has repeatedly thrown out minor possession circumstances.
“It makes me so mad to see so many younger individuals locked up and criminalized simply because they use hashish and never alcohol,” he mentioned throughout a cigarette break at Bernau’s busy municipal court docket.
A part of his anger arises each from the frequency of hashish arrests — 181,000 on minor possession or use expenses in 2021 — and the billions of euros spent imposing what he mentioned was the “absurd” regulation in opposition to getting excessive.
In 2020, Decide Müller wrote the primary grievance to Germany’s highest constitutional court docket, asking it to overturn the hashish regulation. Different judges adopted, and the court docket is now reviewing 10 drug circumstances despatched by three completely different courts in Germany.
“For younger individuals like us, it’s fairly inspiring to have somebody from an older technology, who’s a choose, advocate for a factor that possibly goes in opposition to standard opinion,” mentioned the rapper GReeeN, 33, who typically sings favorably about hashish. “It’s necessary — we’d like individuals like him for change.”
GReeeN, whose actual title is Pasquale Denefleh, is aware of the choose from a video they made collectively. The choose, enjoying himself, raps concerning the evils of hashish prohibition. “Smoking weed isn’t prison; smoking weed is regular,” he sings.
The German authorities has begun taking the choose’s aspect within the hashish debate simply because the choose, 61, is getting ready to retire from the bench.
In mid-April, Karl Lauterbach, the nation’s well being minister, introduced a plan legalizing hashish for private use; within the coming months, a extra complete plan that will ultimately legalize and tax the sale of hashish is predicted to be proposed.
After years of a conservative-run authorities, the brand new center-left coalition underneath Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, has signaled it’s more likely to approve the proposal, which might make Germany the primary European nation the place not solely the possession but in addition the general public sale of hashish is not only decriminalized, however legalized.
Though the modifications to the regulation would have come with out his assist, Decide Müller and others consider he performed a small half within the overhaul.
“It’s truthful to say that he was instrumental in exhibiting that calls for for reform weren’t simply coming from the hashish group, however from a extra established perspective, too,” mentioned Ates Gürpinar, a member of Parliament and the drug coverage spokesman for the far-left Die Linke get together, which helps legalizing hashish.
Earlier than the coalition’s newest plan was introduced, Decide Müller had threatened to arrange avenue protests to place stress on the federal government.
That pugnaciousness is a signature a part of the choose’s model.
“Due to his tough edges, he’s not simply well-known, he’s additionally feared,” Mr. Gürpinar mentioned. “He’ll simply hearth off issues even when he is aware of that it may irritate potential allies.”
Judges in Germany wield a whole lot of energy of their courtrooms, however with just a few exceptions — like a choose arrested for her half in a plot to overthrow the federal authorities final December — they have a tendency to remain out of the political fray.
Not so Decide Müller, who usually will get into spats on Twitter, the place he has 60,000 followers. He is also the deputy director of the German chapter of LEAP, or Legislation Enforcement Motion Partnership, a hashish advocacy group run by law-enforcement officers, legal professionals and politicians.
Some law-enforcement officers say the choose doesn’t sufficiently separate his activism from his day job. In 2020 the native district lawyer’s workplace utilized to have him recused from listening to hashish circumstances. Ricarda Böhme, a prosecutor, mentioned in an interview that given “the target general view of his public statements” the choose may in “no manner be capable to attain an unbiased resolution” on such issues.
However the next court docket dominated for the choose and he was capable of proceed listening to these circumstances.
Born within the city of Meppen in Decrease Saxony, Decide Müller’s father, traumatized by his expertise as an 18-year-old soldier in World Battle II, drank himself to demise when the choose was 11. His brother hung out in jail on a drug cost and died younger. Decide Müller was the primary member of his prolonged household to graduate from highschool.
“It was a gift to my mom,” he mentioned about his profession selection.
Beginning in Bernau as a choose in 1997, Decide Müller was a part of a technology of judges from the previous West Germany who got here to the previous East Germany to assist modernize and democratize the judicial system after the collapse of communism.
For all of the leniency he has proven in hashish trials, he has a popularity as an unsparing choose in different circumstances.
“I’ve despatched fairly just a few individuals to jail,” he mentioned. A tabloid began calling him “Decide Cruel” till he threatened authorized motion.
Earlier than he turned identified for his advocacy on hashish, Decide Müller was feared amongst far-right youths for his aggressive stance on prosecuting neo-Nazis.
For some time he declared a selected footwear worn as an identification marker by German neo-Nazi skinheads — the Dr. Martens 16-eyelet boot with white shoelaces — a weapon in his courtroom, forcing guests and witnesses who got here sporting the boots to look in socks. He gave conditional sentences that compelled right-wing youth to go to mosques and share meals with immigrants from inner-city districts. He had individuals go to focus camps and write essays. He meted out jail sentences for first offenses.
“He’s an activist in some methods and has been dedicated to liberal drug insurance policies for years, however in terms of different offenses, he’s also referred to as a strict and uncompromising choose,” mentioned Hasso Suliak, lawyer and an editor at Authorized Tribune On-line, a German authorized information web site, who has adopted Decide Müller’s court docket circumstances.
All this has made the choose no less than a minor celeb, particularly in Bernau bei Berlin. A current packed day of trials in Bernau needed to be delayed as a result of Decide Müller heard a neighborhood electrician needed to satisfy him.
When he discovered his admirer, he gave him his newest calling card: a package deal of cigarette rolling paper with the choose’s personal picture emblazed on one aspect and the phrases “legalize it” printed on the aspect.
