Pilate wasn't the first or the last to commit evil acts and live a dandy life. There is often no justice, either earthly or divine. Christopher Hitchens points

Pilate wasn't the first or the last to commit evil acts and live a dandy life. There is often no justice, either earthly or divine. Christopher Hitchens points out that humans suffered alone among the elements, for aeons, before suddenly prophets began preaching the "goodness" of sky daddy. The enduring existence of evil provides a counterexample. Either he delights in evil, or he is incompetent to do anything about it. There's no justice, there's just us. It's worth noting that during the time of Jesus (I accept there may have been such a historical figure), there were reams and reams of prophets. It is remarkable that the state chose to steal his thunder by coopting that one. But decades before that political decision, Jesus was just another prophet among prophets. Nothing in the liturgical account of the trial makes sense, given how ordinary the case would have been against the wider background of similar cases.