The outcome of Wednesday's sentencing hearing is not in doubt: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be formally condemned to die for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings. Defense lawyers have not indicated whether Tsarnaev, 21, plans to accept the opportunity to address the court before the death sentence is officially imposed. Legal experts say Tsarnaev, 21, has little or nothing to gain by speaking since the judge is required to impose the death sentence recommended by the jury. “He said emphatically, ‘No one deserves to suffer like they did,'” said Sister Helen Prejean, a staunch death penalty opponent made famous in the 1995 film “Dead Man Walking.” 
 
 Tsarnaev’s lawyers told the jury those words show that Tsarnaev is sorry for what he did, but some experts said it is impossible to know what he meant, given his impassive demeanor throughout the trial. “I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by it at this point. Whatever would be said, I think, would be viewed as too little, too late,” Hoose said. "I would be very surprised if he speaks," said Stephen Jones, who represented Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced to death and later executed for the Oklahoma City bombing. In a brief statement during his sentencing hearing, McVeigh didn’t express remorse but instead quoted a dissenting opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in a wiretapping case: “Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.” 
 
 “That’s all I have,” McVeigh said. Related: Bombing Survivors Call Death Verdict 'Justice' 
 
 David Hoose, a Massachusetts defense lawyer, told the Associated Press that Tsarnaev should keep his mouth shut.
– A nun says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev expressed remorse, while prosecutors played video of him giving the finger to a security camera. But today, secondhand narratives and hand gestures may give way to words straight out of the Boston Marathon bomber's mouth during his sentencing, NBC News reports. Although defense lawyers are mum, the will-he-or-won't-he question has set off a debate over whether it's a smart idea for him to vocalize, say, his motives or apologies to victims' families, as the Los Angeles Times suggests. The lawyer who defended Timothy McVeigh, for one, thinks Tsarnaev shouldn't talk. "I would be very surprised if he speaks," he tells NBC. "Generally, I don't advise clients to make a statement unless they are articulate and it ... doesn't sound like it was written by lawyers." Adds another defense attorney, "I don't think there's anything to be gained by it at this point," he says. "Whatever would be said … would be viewed as too little, too late." But a law school prof tells CBS that Tsarnaev could take a long view: While an apology won't affect his sentence, it could give him leverage if he seeks to have his death sentence commuted by the president. Conversely, he could use his sentencing as a platform, like Zacarias Moussaoui, who issued taunts at his 2006 sentencing for conspiring on the 9/11 attacks: "God curse America. And God save Osama bin Laden. You will never get him." Who will likely be speaking today: bombing victims and their families, who will have the chance to give impact statements, the Times notes. (Tsarnaev didn't testify at his trial, but he did cry during one person's testimony.)