It's an odd thing -a bit ahistorical - to claim that the occupied nation, riven with its own divisions, was really so powerful that they forced the Governor (with actual Roman legions at his disposal) to do something.
I think when you take over the Role of the Government (which Rome did) and set yourself up as the Legal System as Rome did, and insist that you alone have to power to punish and condemn people as Pontious Pilot did... then you can't - at the last minute, or in the eyes of history say "Oh no: that noisy group of protesters MADE ME DO IT, it wasn't really my fault at all.
That seems preposterous to claim. Anyone who does seems like they are compensating or making excuses.
The Buck Stops Here: Pontius Pilot
To use a modern example: the entire Leftist mob hates Trump and wants to put him in jail, but when he is finally convicted the cause of that will be the Court System and Jury that tried him, despite all the braying of the Atlantic Magazine and MS-NBC it's the legal apparatus that did the deed.