Does Judas Deserves a New Trial?

As reported in the January 27 issue of The Week, Ben Macintrye of the London Times reports that Vatican scholoars are considering letting Judas "slide" for the death of Jesus. The two main reasons according to Macintyre:

1) Since Jesus was so famous, why would the Romans need an insider to betray him, and
2) Judas was blamed at the end of the first century A.D. when the early Christian Church needed a Jewish "hate figure" to assist with its competition with Judiasm.

Macintyre also states that the first Christian writings by St. Paul never mention Judas. It's not until the Gospel of John - 70 years after Christ's death - that Judas gets the blame.