Not when the death penalty is involved. Death penalty cases are tried based on pre-meditation knowing that you are in fact going to take a life. If you walk in on your wife banging the neighbor and kill said neighbor on the spot you will not be tried for the death penalty. It was not pre-meditated but rather a "crime of passion".
Conversely, if you walk in on your wife and the neighbor and then turn away and begin planning your neighbors demise and carry out said plan, you may be eligible for the death penalty.
Death penalty is all about pre-meditation. This is why I'm curious to see how they charge the Sloops. The prosecuters would have to show that the Sloops planned and then knowingly set out to kill that little 4 year old to get the death penalty. I suspect that they will likely get life in prison where other inmates will carry out the death sentence.
Misinformation. Premeditation is NOT a required element for the death penalty.
In Utah, the death penalty is punishment for Aggravated Murder. This includes several possible offenses that don't involve premeditated killing or could be done in the spur of the moment. For example, the killing of a police officer qualifies regardless of premeditation. The inclusion of the felony murder rule into the aggravated murder statute also means that many unintentional deaths that occur incident to the commission of another crime could also trigger the death penalty.
Here's the Utah Aggravated Murder statute: https://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE76/htm/76_05_020200.htm
Several states allow for the death penalty for offenses short of the killing of another.
https://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-offenses-other-murder
But thanks for telling us what you learned from watching Law and Order re-runs on A&E.