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I don’t know where you got your information. Major Andre was not a criminal — he was every bit an officer and a gentleman by all accounts. I can guarantee you Washington took no pleasure in Andre’s death, referring to him as “an accomplished man and a gallant officer.”

As I recall it, the issue was that Washington stated that he would hang a British officer in response to Hale’s hanging. A very young British officer (can’t recall his name) was slated to be the one, and Washington spared him after the man’s mother wrote to him personally — it was something of a sensation at the time. So having relented once, he couldn’t very well relent again, even for the sake of an officer who was admired by both British and Americans. Even so, Washington informed Howe that he would exchange Andre for Benedict Arnold, but only Benedict Arnold. That of course did not happen.