The condemned man gave what may be his last public words before hundreds of police officers and detectives.

To the families of the two detectives he murdered in 2003, Ronell Wilson meekly offered his apologies.

“I know it don’t mean much, and you still look at me like I’m the lowest thing on earth, but it’s in my heart that I’m sorry,” he said yesterday. Wilson, 24, delivered these words in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where a judge formally sentenced him to death.

Wilson had spoken only once during his recent trial. In January a jury meted out death as the punishment for the murders of the detectives, James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews. The jury’s sentence was binding upon the judge, Nicholas Garaufis, who formally entered it yesterday. That the outcome of the proceeding was a foregone conclusion did not stop hundreds of law enforcement officials from gathering in the courtroom.

Incarcerated persons do not generally accompany their lawyers to appeals, so this was expected to be Wilson’s last appearance before his execution, should it occur.

Wilson said yesterday that he and fellow gang members did not know that Nemorin and Andrews were undercover police officers, as prosecutors had suggested. Wilson shot both men in the head as the detectives tried to arrange the purchase of a gun from him.

“None of us knew these men were cops, period,” he said.

To get the death penalty, the prosecution did not need to prove that Wilson knew the identities of the two men. Still, this claim emerged as the most contested factual matter during the two-month trial, perhaps because the rest of the evidence against Wilson was so overwhelming.

His three attorneys spoke of the stunned feeling that comes from knowing a client is about to be sentenced to death.

“What I say is really of no moment,” one attorney, Ephraim Savitt, said, recognizing that Judge Garaufis was bound to impose a death sentence. “Except to assuage my own need.”

Finally, Wilson thanked Judge Garaufis for allowing his mother to visit him on occasion and for allowing him to address those present.

“All right, will the defendant stand?” Judge Garaufis said as the hearing drew toward its end. “Are you ready to be sentenced, Mr. Wilson?”

“Yeah,” Wilson said. With a single finger, he pushed back a plastic cup of water from where it stood at the table’s edge.

“It is the judgment of this court that Ronell Wilson be sentenced to death,” the judge said.

The prisoner stood heavy on his feet as Judge Garaufis listed the charges for which he had been convicted.