The Jewish trial broke Israel's laws so many times that it is hard to imagine an arrest and trial more illegally run, and the Roman trial followed with its own irregularities. The Jewish court could convict but had lost the power to execute, so the leaders sought Roman concurrence, expecting a hasty morning rubber-stamp of a verdict already reached. When Pilate instead opened a formal hearing, they illegally changed the indictment. Jesus had been condemned for blasphemy, which Rome would ignore, so before Pilate they charged Him with high treason: perverting the nation, forbidding taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be a king. The tax charge was a malicious lie, since Jesus had already answered that question in Matthew 22. Roman procedure required indictment, examination, defense, and verdict, and all were present, so the proceeding was a genuine trial rather than an informal hearing. Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent three times, which was the right verdict. Yet he failed to release Him or place Him in protective custody, as later Roman officials did for Paul. Pressured by the mob and by fear of Caesar, he lapsed into irregular and illegal proceedings that ended in execution. Pilate was a self-seeking coward, and the true judgment fell on him. The Jewish leaders, meanwhile, scrupulously avoided ritual defilement while committing judicial murder, an example of the human habit of keeping outward forms while denying their reality.

The source does not argue that the trial was procedurally illegal. It stresses that Jesus was repeatedly declared innocent yet still condemned. Pilate examined Jesus on the charge of claiming kingship against Caesar and found it unwarranted, declaring three times, "I find no fault in Him at all." The first declaration came at the close of the Roman trial. The second came after Herod sent Jesus back uncondemned, and the third after the flogging, when Pilate said he found no reason for death in Him. Pilate should then have released Jesus or placed Him in protective custody, as the Romans later did with Paul. Instead he backed away from the only proper course, fearing a riot and the loss of his position. He tried to pass responsibility to Herod, offered the Passover custom of releasing a prisoner, and had Jesus beaten to provoke pity, and he finally delivered a man he knew to be innocent to the mob's will. Herod, a decayed and superstitious ruler, treated the proceeding as entertainment, mocked Jesus, and sent Him back without condemnation. Jesus' innocence fulfills the requirement that the Passover lamb be without blemish and be examined beforehand. He was therefore sacrificed as one uncondemned and declared blameless. The same verdict was given by the Father, the disciples, the Jewish leaders, who could find no fault and condemned Him only for claiming to be the Son of God, and Judas, who confessed to betraying "innocent blood."

The arrest and trial of Jesus broke Hebrew law so many times that the laws of Israel seem thoroughly ignored. The arrest was illegal because it came at night, relied on a traitor and accomplice in Judas (contrary to Leviticus 19:16), and lacked any formal charge. These flaws alone should have meant acquittal. The private examination before Annas was illegal because it was held at night, before a single judge, and tried to force the accused to testify against Himself. The Jewish trial was also illegal on several grounds. It was held at night, on the day before the Sabbath, and finished within a single day instead of allowing an overnight interval for the judges to seek grounds for exoneration. Caiaphas, who was supposed to stay silent, put Jesus under oath, and conviction rested on Jesus' own confession. The unanimous condemnation should have invalidated the verdict, since no one spoke for mercy. Jesus also had no defense at all, which turned the proceeding into a vigilante action. The greatest illegality was the questions never asked. The judges should have examined whether Jesus' claims to be Messiah and unique Son of God fit the Old Testament. Birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14), Davidic descent, a forerunner, miracles, the entry on a donkey, betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, and rejection (Isaiah 53) all supported Him. Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 2:7, and Old Testament appearances of the Eternal showed that His divine claim could not be dismissed outright. Even if the rulers had rejected this defense, it would have created reasonable doubt, and the absence of any inquiry exposes the trial as judicial murder.