Bidder 70 Trial: "Many After Me Will Have to Join Me as Well"

Tim DeChristopher's trial came to a close on Thursday, yet the outpouring of support continues. Many have cited this trial as a key turning point of the climate change movement. "We know that now I’ll have to go to prison," DeChristopher said. "If we’re going to achieve our vision, many after me will have to join me as well."

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Outside, he walked through a column of supporters, offering a resolved smile as he hugged weeping friends and admirers. At the end of the line, he turned, raised his fist and delivered an impassioned oratory urging the 75 or so demonstrators and others worldwide to follow him into the climate wars. He called his prosecution "intimidation" but said it hadn’t deterred activists. "They tried to convince me that I was like a little finger out there alone that could easily be broken," he said. Instead, he likened his environmental cause to a unified, upraised but nonviolent fist — the symbol of the Peaceful Uprising group he co-founded after his 2008 offenses.

Despite the guilty verdict, according to jurors, the final decision wasn't easy.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” juror Fidel Martin told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday soon after he and 11 others voted to convict Tim DeChristopher of two felonies for placing bogus bids at a federal oil and gas lease auction. “There were some tears. There were some watery eyes.”

Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune here and here.

Image: MSNBC