First and foremost, Pilate did not want to be involved with these types of religious matters concerning the Jews. He knew this was a very troubling time and for fear that there would be a lot of unrest in his territory, he went ahead with the punishment and crucifixion of JESUS, even though, he was troubled by these decisions. In certain depictions of the story you see scenes that show Pilate wiping his hands clean of this decision to put JESUS to death. He laid this doing on the people.