There also used to be death penalty in some states for kidnapping or rape, IIRC. The next goal of the left is no death penalty, no life terms, though they will probably want them for hate crimes or just hate thoughts.
If you commit your evil murder in Huntsville, you deserve to be executed just on general principles. That’s where Texas executions take place.
There is a real problem with having the death penalty for crimes like kidnapping and rape. The kidnapper or rapist has no reason NOT to kill his victims if he’s going to be executed either way. Why let a victim live so they can report the crime, provide a description, identify the perpetrator and testify against him in court? Better to kill the victim and thereby reduce the likelihood that he’ll get caught or convicted.
I think reserving the DP for murder is the right thing to do.