Interestingly enough, while the Gospels have the crowd screaming "crucify him", the Jews themselves held a high level of contempt for crucifixion in general. I read once that the only reason Jesus was crucified was due to the fact that it was how non-Roman criminals were punished under Roman law. That said, if it had been solely up to the Sanhedrin, Jesus would probably have been executed in a proper Judaic manner.
And while I don't go around saying Pilate should be canonized, he was appointed as governor/whatever in the same way that later empires dispatched incompetent nincompoops to the back of beyond solely because they were too important/connected to kill.
And while I don't go around saying Pilate should be canonized, he was appointed as governor/whatever in the same way that later empires dispatched incompetent nincompoops to the back of beyond solely because they were too important/connected to kill.