I have sympathy for all people regardless of what they have done. I can't really help it; I simply am able to find the "story" or "pathos" in any person and see where their lives took wrong turns, see what they MIGHT have been, see what they COULD be if they made different decisions. And I am extremely forgiving of people who hate what they become and want badly to change, even if they're struggling and/or don't know how to make those changes. I'd rather help them and carry them, than damn them.
At the same time, I don't believe in protecting people in general from the natural consequences of their actions. Even the repentant, if they are repentant, understand the need to take responsibility for the choices they have made. I don't really like to spare people that, because it would not be just... and it actually takes meaning away from their choice to repent. (What good is repentance if you don't have to suffer for it? How do you know how much you really DO want to repent, if there is no hard decision to be made? Painless repentance is cheap.)
I am also pretty compassionate for people who are suffering things out of their control, who end up doing horrendous things. (Andrea Yates, for example -- who was clearly mentally ill, yet no one took necessary precautions or removed her from / protected her in her stressful situation. What she did was horrific... and yet she was clearly ill, not because of what she did per se, but because of her behavior and noticeable decline over a number of years before she murdered her kids.) This is not a lack of defending her children, who were also victims (and I'm a parent, so I identify with the kids); it's simply being realistic about what her intentions were, what was realistic for her to handle, and that if she hadn't been schizophrenic, she would have never considered harming her children.
And I also become furious when I see all the "Roast 'em / Fry 'em!" signs (or whatever) being waved outside a penitentiary when someone is about to be executed. The crimes committed were bad enough; to revel in another human being's death is also very hard-hearted, because I think it's tragic when any human being's life is completely wasted, by their mistakes or another's. It says something about our own hearts to rejoice in the death of another; I just can't do it; we are all part of humanity and connected.