Just gave the current beta build a try. Limited testing as I have to head out to work right now.
I found when I died while melee’ing via the secondary attack, the knife’s “woosh” would keep striking through the respawn count and a few more times after having actually respawned and moving around… then it would finally cancel.
This does not occur when dying while using the primary melee attack.
Only had time to test it with a knife wielding merc, can’t confirm if the cricket bat does it.