So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. John 18:29-32

You get a sense by reading this that the Jewish leaders really didn’t know what to charge Jesus with but because he was embarrassing them, they had to do something. And in verse 31 it’s apparent that they wanted Jesus executed, and they wouldn’t have been satisfied if he wasn’t. They were out for blood. Quite literally. They wanted to wash their hands of the entire matter so they can say that the Romans executed him. They were trying to pass the buck or in this case the burden of responsibility onto Pilate, but he was on to them. He had dealt with their type before.

I’ll never understand the kind of power that Pilate or these Jewish leaders had. I say that because prior to his arrest, Jesus was embarrassing them publicly. He knew the Law inside and out because He wrote the Book!

be very careful of the power you have over others, i.e., supervisor, manager, executive, bureaucrat. If we’re not extremely careful with it, it can be intoxicating and dangerous if left unchecked.