A lot of legal principles far predate the foundation of the U.S. and are still standing in some places. That doesn't mean such approach deserves to remain applicable for all purposes and be applied everywhere.

The blacklist reference goes back to at least the time of England's King Charles the Second who decided that under standing legal principles officials needed to be punished (read: "killed") for engaging in regicide (of his father). Being killed certainly ends the killed ones' freedom of movement.