But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the other.

Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs broken and the bodies taken down.