Imagining utopia: the global abolition of the death penalty

Abstract

The utopia of a world without the death penalty is the approaching good place, the better country, and this chapter sets out a multi-disciplinary analysis of how global abolition can be achieved. Upon the horizon, sovereignty used to occupy a stalwart place casting an imposing shadow of the possibility of the death penalty, and it effectively placed those within the worst aspect of human government; the initiation of a criminal justice thanatos. But following the solidification of the international human rights project the death penalty can no longer be applied as a manifestation of acceptable sovereign power. If executions do occur, they are revealed the world over for what they are – inhumane acts of shameful narcissism and expressions of dystopian horror; they brutalize those with whom they come into contact. The emerging utopia of global abolition is composed of a growing number of countries that are encouraged and empowered by the United Nations and the other political regions, with the support of the network of nongovernmental organizations. The seeds for the demise of the death penalty were planted by the imagination of the authors of utopian fiction and these valiant expositors have been emulated and reflected within the practical examples that have paved the way for the removal of the punishment globally.