Bryan Kohberger has another chance to explain why he killed 4 Idaho college students. But he doesn’t have to speak

Bryan Kohberger has one last chance Wednesday to give the grieving parents of four University of Idaho students he admitted to killing the answers they’ve desperately sought for nearly three years.

Why did he do it?

Kohberger will have an opportunity to reveal those details before his sentencing Wednesday, following a remarkable change-of-plea hearing on July 2 that spared him the death penalty and his highly anticipated murder trial by admitting guilt to burglary and first-degree murder in the November 2022 killings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.

Kohberger will be granted an allocution — the formal opportunity defendants are given to speak directly to the court before they are sentenced by the judge. Traditionally, defendants use allocution to humanize themselves and express remorse, or offer an apology, or even an explanation for their actions — anything that could be taken into account during sentencing, according to the American Bar Association.

But it’s unlikely he’ll say a thing, legal analyst and trial attorney Mercedes Colwin told CNN.

“What we can expect in sentencing would first be the victim impact statements by the families. We already know that there are several that are going to speak, which should be horrendous,” Colwin told CNN.

“I’m sure it’s going to be gut-wrenching, and then he will be given the opportunity to address the court before the judge sentences him. That’s where he can say, ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done,’ which I don’t expect any of that to take place,” Colwin said.