As I said, IMO, it can be, and often is, a very useful tool to encourage a guilty defendant to agree to take a first degree LWOP plea in exchange for no DP sentence. I doubt a jury would actually sentence him/them, assuming there's more than 1 defendant. And, there's nothing "virtual signaling" about it--you commit a premeditated first degree murder with special circumstances in NC, and you've earned your way into a possible death penalty sentence, per the statutes and legislature.
That said, I'm getting way ahead of myself. First things first, and that's the recovery of poor A.B.