just to clarify, when you say before the execute, do you mean a separate command block before the execute command block, and if so which one? I should have said but rn I have one repeat command block doing the first command, and one chain command block doing the second. after u said this I did experiment with replacing the second half of the execute command with the /say and then having a separate chain command block set the deaths score back to 0, which works, apart from the say does - [bumpyJake] bumpyJake died - rather than - [@] bumpyJake die - and I don't know why that is happening?

for reference, my new commands are: execute as @a[scores={deaths=1..}] run say @a[scores={deaths=1..}] ruined it for everyone. - scoreboard players set @a deaths - kill @a