“The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.”
King James Version (KJV)
27:22 They all say, Let him be crucified - The punishment which Barabbas had deserved: and this probably made them think of it. But in their malice they forgot with how dangerous a precedent they furnished the Roman governor. And indeed within the compass of a few years it turned dreadfully upon themselves.
Mt 27:21 They said, Barabbas. Pilate's artifice had failed. The Jewish nation had not only rejected its Messiah, but chosen a robber instead.