"SALT LAKE CITY -- An environmental activist is asking a federal appeals court to overturn his two-year prison sentence for disrupting an auction of drilling parcels on public lands near Utah's national parks."

"Defense lawyers argue that Tim DeChristopher was wrongly convicted at a federal trial in Salt Lake City last summer. They say DeChristopher lacked criminal intent and was acting in civil disobedience to disrupt an auction of wilderness lands he believed was illegal. The judge refused to allow the former college student to offer that testimony.

Arguments are set for Thursday before the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver."

Paul Foy reports for the Associated Press May 9, 2012 [2]