<P> A series of decisions by the United States Supreme Court during the 1960s resulted in his release on Christmas Eve, 1969, from Attica State Prison . He was in ill health at the time, suffering from emphysema and in need of an operation on the arteries of his legs . </P> <P> Sutton died in 1980 at the age of 79; before this, he had spent his last years with his sister in Spring Hill, Florida . He frequented the Spring Hill Restaurant where he kept to himself . After Sutton's death, his family arranged a quiet burial in Brooklyn in the family plot . </P> <P> A famous apocryphal story is that Sutton was asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad why he robbed banks . According to Ohnstad, he replied, "Because that's where the money is". The quote evolved into Sutton's law, which is often invoked to medical students as a metaphor for emphasizing the most likely diagnosis, rather than wasting time and money investigating every conceivable possibility . </P> <P> In his autobiography, Sutton denied originating the pithy rejoinder: </P>

Who said i rob banks because that where the money is