Malaysia’s death penalty: a post-abolition research agenda

Malaysia’s landmark 2023 decision to abolish the mandatory death penalty – thus granting judges discretion over 12 capital offences – marks a pivotal shift, significantly reducing the death row population from over 1,300 to approximately 140 by late 2024. Yet, the death penalty remains discretionary for 27 offences. Crucially, this reform has not eliminated systemic bias but has relocated discretion, amplifying the opaque gatekeeping roles of law enforcement and prosecution policy. This situation perpetuates the legacy of the ‘War on Drugs’ and its disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations. I present an original and rigorous research agenda to guide this continued reform. Utilising a novel comparative framework (the UK’s abolition of the death penalty and Singapore’s retention of it), I contextualise Malaysia’s reforms within its postcolonial legal heritage. I propose ten critical research foci: equitable judicial discretion, resentencing outcomes, law enforcement practices, prosecution policy, public opinion, empirical re-evaluation of deterrence, equitable access to justice, rehabilitation and reintegration, socio-economic analysis, and constitutional pathways to full abolition. These critical areas are significant for informing crucial policy development and contributing substantively to the decolonisation of criminal law in the Global South.