It was perfectly democratic. The people were given their choice between this man and the other. They chose this one for death and the other for life. I did no more than their bidding. My hands are clean.
Both men were leading movements inimical to the peace, and opposed to civil society as we know it. Lest we be deemed to be too harsh in suppressing such uprisings before they reach the full flower of violence, we have developed the custom of setting one of their leaders free each year during their holiday. This year it was going to be the other man anyway, until this one came along. He seemed to me a dreamer, rather than a man of action. I would have preferred freeing him rather than the one the people wanted, because he seemed to me to be the lesser threat. The people must have thought so too, and in their perversity, seeking to undermine the civilization that gives them so much, they chose to have the more dangerous fellow released.
The people have spoken, and in Roman magnanimity I carried out their choice. May the powers protect us from the fellow I freed.