Pontius Pilate is a Saint in a few Church Traditions because he tries to give the Jews multiple chances to let Jesus walk away from his execution. Pilate questions them on why Jesus is to be executed and he finds Christ not Guilty, asks them if they want Jesus or a murderer to be released, and washes his hands saying that the blood is not on his hands because the Jews of the time threatened to start a riot if Jesus was released and the Jewish Leaders within the Scripture accept the blood upon them and their progeny.
Pilate, however, is remarked as weak in many traditions because he basically bends to evil at the end of the day. The Sadducee's and Pharisee's delivered Christ to him with obviously bogus charges and braying for blood, and he gives into them.
He let an innocent man die because another party threatened to riot.
Christ's fate had to die on the Cross, but everyone within the Passion basically fucking fails at what they were supposed to do. All of the Apostle's hide away and watch from a far, the authorities don't do their job, and the Jews reject their Messiah and force him to be humiliated, degraded, and killed in front of his mother.
Sorry, to shit up the thread with this, but it's basically someone threatening the Judge, the witnesses, and everyone else at a trial to declare someone guilty or otherwise.