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I think you are looking at the problem at hand in the wrong way.
This isn't about comprehension and sympathy. You can even feel sympathy for a murderer for what I care, I can actually understand that if you are the murderer's father or wife. Even if you aren't related you can still understand the murderer's action if you know their sad background.
But all of that is irrelevant. I, personally, am not saying that you must hate the murderer, actually I think it would be better to never hate anyone (although it's not always really possible).
We are talking about justice here, it has nothing to do with sympathy, hate or sentiments in general. If someone did something wrong he must take responsibility for his actions, and the first step is recognizing his wrongdoings. Acting otherwise is just escaping from your own responsibility, it isn't going to help anyone, not even the wrongdoer.
You killed someone? You had your personal reason you did so? Good, but now turn yourself in. If you had special circumstances then explain those to the jury and the world.
The murderer is someone who died long ago? Then someone else in his place should explain what he did and why he did it to the world (as much as that's possible).
Talking about comprehension and forgiveness is pointless when the issue at hand is the fact that nothing is known about the true murderer. You can't comprehend nor forgive anyone if you don't know what they did in the first place.
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