Mark 15:8

And the multitude went up and began to ask him to do as he was wont to do unto them.

Regarding the identity of this crowd, Turlington said:

They may have been friends of Barabbas, who had come to ask for his release. This would be, as Rawlinson says, "a strangely dramatic historical coincidence"; but it accords with what happened.[4]

If such was the case, the coincidence would have been one of Satan's "providences," such as Jonah's finding a ship ready to sail; but this interesting and speculative interpretation does not have the ring of truth. If that crowd had indeed been friends of Barabbas, they could not have known Jesus, nor would there have been any motivation for them to shout, "Crucify him!" As the Gospels attributed such a demand for Jesus' death to the fact of the priests "stirring up the multitude," it is not unlikely that they were the ones who "got the crowd out" in the first place, having no doubt anticipated the governor's customary clemency at Passover and making sure that it should not be extended to Jesus. It was one of those pat demonstrations that rabble-rousers, through their followers, know how to produce.