Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly face Jared Loughner at sentencing

Mark E. Kelly stared at the young man who, nearly two years ago, brought a gun to a Tucson plaza and shot Kelly's wife in the head and killed six other people.

The attack left Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman, partially blind, unable to use her right arm and struggling to piece together sentences, Kelly told a federal judge Thursday during the gunman's sentencing. Jared Lee Loughner also wounded a dozen more outside a grocery store where Giffords had been shaking hands with constituents.

"You tried to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as your own. But know this, and remember it always: You failed," said Kelly, a retired astronaut. As he spoke, Giffords stood next to him, a symbol of resilience.

Loughner, 24, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the rampage. U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said that, although Loughner had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, he understood the potential consequences of the attack and even searched online for information about the death penalty beforehand.