Charles Spurgeon Commentary Acts 25:13-16

"Now when certain days were passed, Agrippa the King and Bernice arrived at Caesarea, and saluted Festus. And as they tarried there many days, Festus laid Paul`s case before the King, saying, There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix; about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed [me], asking for sentence against him. To whom I answered, that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man, before that the accused have the accusers face to face, and have had opportunity to make his defense concerning the matter laid against him." — Acts 25:13-16 (ASV)

Festus must have felt profound contempt for the chief priests and elders of the Jews who clamored for Paul's death even before he had been tried, and he gave them plainly to understand that this was not the Roman method of dealing with accused persons, even if it was the Jewish method.