Clearly the Empire was going with the low bidder on Trooper armor at that point. One can argue they’re merely stunned, not dead. 😉
I still believe more violent scenes were shot, but cut.
If you’ve ever seen the documentary Star Wars To Jedi:The Making Of A Saga, Lucas implies they made Leia the other at the last moment. When they came to shoot the throne room scenes, they still had not figured out what Vader should say to make Luke fight him.