Newly convicted climate activist Tim DeChristopher appreciated the songs, the banners and the hugs outside the courthouse Thursday [3 Mar 2011], but he expects more.<\/p>\n
“We know that now I\u2019ll have to go to prison,” DeChristopher said. “If we\u2019re going to achieve our vision, many after me will have to join me as well.”<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Salt Lake City man said he is prepared to do time after Thursday\u2019s two felony guilty verdicts for misrepresenting himself and placing bogus bids at a federal oil and gas lease auction. His question for a throng of supporters outside was: Who else is ready to join him in risking their freedom for a healthy planet?<\/p>\n
Many in the crowd called back: “I\u2019ll join you.”<\/p>\n
A jury of eight men and four women deliberated nearly five hours before rejecting DeChristopher\u2019s defense for his Dec. 19, 2008, actions, which provoked a chaos of inflated prices and fraudulent winnings that shut down the last of the Bush administration\u2019s offerings to energy developers.<\/p>\n
The fate of 149,000 acres of redrock Utah desert that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management offered to oil and gas drillers that day remains unclear because the Obama administration has pulled most of the leases off the market.<\/p>\n
Moments after the courtroom had cleared, DeChristopher, along with attorneys Pat Shea and Elizabeth Hunt, silently exited the second-floor chamber. After a speechless ride down the elevator, DeChristopher retrieved his mother\u2019s cell phone from a security checkpoint, then asked Shea if there was anything else they needed to do before he could join his supporters outside Salt Lake City\u2019s federal courthouse. Shea shook his head.<\/p>\n
“OK,” DeChristopher said, shuffling to the door with his hands in his pockets. “I\u2019ve had enough of this place for a week.”<\/p>\n