The death penalty, rare in a state that outlawed most uses of it in 1847, could follow a guilty verdict in an armed robbery killing, say Michigan legal experts.

The Detroit News reported on Wednesday that federal jury convicted Timothy Dennis O'Reilly Tuesday of six felony counts from a 2001 robbery, including the murder of armored car guard Norman "Anthony" Stephens as he loaded cash into an automated teller machine.

The same jury will Monday decide whether O'Reilly will face life in prison or death by lethal injection.

It has been reported that Michigan was the first state to ban capital punishment, in 1847, but the sentence can still be imposed for certain federal crimes, including murder during a bank robbery.

U. S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts appeared briefly overcome by emotion as she told jurors the guilty counts included "two that carry the death penalty."

The New further said that there hasn't been in execution in the state since 1938 when a Hamtramk, Mich., man, also convicted of murder during a bank robbery, was hanged. (With Inputs from Agencies)