I've seen this movie multiple times, and the only crime I've heard Butcher Benton accused of is stealing an armored truck with $600K. And for that he got the death penalty?
With a name like "Butcher," I'm guessing he must have murdered at least one person, but I never heard it mentioned in the movie. I always thought that it was odd that a man got the death penalty for armed robbery, and put to death so quickly!
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perhaps someone was killed in the armored car robbery........
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before 1972 many states included armed robbery, rape and kidnapping as capital offences even if no homicide occurred. [Executions were rare, although the Chessman case and rapes of white women by blacks frequently occurred.]
All the states had to rewrite their laws to conform to a SCOTUS decision which started a new era in the death penalty starting with Gilmore.