What’s up with movies like this and Shawshank trying to get us to feel sorry for literal murderers?

This is nothing new. A lot of movies are told from the point of view of the murderers. In this movie, Wild Bill was unrepentant so we are happy when he gets shot. Del and Bitterbuck are at least remorseful for what they did. No one thinks they should be pardoned for their crimes, but we still feel sorry for them because they have changed. It's both human nature and compelling story telling.

It’s fiction

And yet I bet you feel sorry for trump

It's trying to show us that there is more to a person than one thing, and it's trying to get us to see the tragedy in all death, even death with purpose.

Long time now I have been moved by the old quotation, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee," and have taken meaning from it to contemplate the death of one as the death of all and the death of self. I think it's important to remember the humanity of us all and our links with one another.

Now, I don't think there's a value to becoming soft on heinous crimes, but there is value in repentance. And, if I may, I'd suggest that that's what this movie is actually giving us sympathy for. Bitterbuck and Delacroix are both repentant for their crimes. Wharton is not. The movie shows the former two in a sympathetic light, but damns Wharton. Percy, too, as he is given opportunity upon opportunity and yet does not relent in his evil, let alone repent.

So, ultimately, I would say that repentance, redemption, humanity, and empathy are what are being pedalled here, not sympathy for murder.

It’s kind of fictional

So did many other works of art (“Grapes of Wrath,” “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”). The argument is that even people who commit crimes are still humans, with some good qualities inside of them.

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It's not strange it is all about race. Even black murderers are better people than law abiding whites. They can even heal the sick!