The movie Jefferson Keane is talking about with Susan Hayward starring in it is I Want to Live! (1958). It is based on the real life case of Barbara Graham, a prostitute who in March of 1953 helped three men gain entry into the home of an elderly woman (whose son in-law was a millionaire) in an attempt to rob her, however they savagely beat her to death upon finding nothing of value in her home. Graham, along with two of her accomplices (the third was murdered for agreeing to testify against the others), were found guilty of attempted robbery in the first degree and murder in the first degree and were sentenced to death. Graham was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison on June 3, 1955; at the time she was only the third woman to be executed by the state of California.
Elizabeth Rodriguez (Maritza Alvarez) would later go on to a leading role in Orange Is the New Black (2013), a series about a women's prison.