opinion:

The left's fight over the right to self-defense suffered a major setback on Monday when prosecutors in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, decided to drop charges against 75-year-old rancher George Alan Kelly after disagreeing verdicts dismissed his murder conviction.

In Democratic jurisdictions across the country, left-leaning prosecutors side with the lawless and make an example of honest citizens who dare take up arms to defend their families and property, which is why Mr. Kelly was charged on flimsy evidence with shooting and killing a trespasser on his 170-acre ranch a few hundred yards from the Mexican border.

With the border wide open, areas near the ranchers' land have become drug cartel smuggling routes. Kelly said that on January 30, 2023, after finishing his chores and heading to lunch with his wife, he saw a group of bandits with rifles walking through the trees near their home from the kitchen window.

The rancher called the Border Patrol for help, and when he went out to his door to investigate, he heard gunfire. Frightened of what would happen next, the rancher grabbed his rifle and fired a warning shot into the air until the bandits fled, the rancher recalled.

Border Patrol agents arrived and searched the property but found nothing, but later that day Mr Kelly discovered Gabriel Kueng Buitimea's body on his property and again immediately called police.

The man who died was a criminal who had been caught infiltrating the country multiple times. He was carrying an encrypted two-way radio and binoculars, useful tools for spying on drug cartels.

Prosecutors proposed an alternative version of events, that Kelly opened fire with an AK-47 on seven or eight illegal immigrants who had just crossed the Mexican border while innocently strolling on Kelly's property. The only witness to support this version was a Honduran drug smuggler and human trafficker who had infiltrated the country with Quen Buitimea.

Prosecutors took the smugglers at their word and charged Kelly with murder and aggravated assault, alleging that he had pointed the rifle at the Hondurans, putting them in “reasonable fear of imminent bodily harm.” The court set bail at $1 million.

Investigators presented no physical evidence linking Kelly's gun to the bullet that killed Quyen Buitimere, and it's reasonable to assume that cartel members shot and robbed Quyen Buitimere, then dumped his body on a rancher's property in an attempt to put a tough man on the spot.

Sheriff David Hathaway, an activist Democrat, spoke about the incident in a video, suggesting the ranchers had a desire to “get the Mexicans.” So the sheriff took Kelly into custody and allowed detectives to blackmail him into confessing to the murder, but Kelly didn't take the bait.

The prosecution argued that there were some inconsistencies in Kelly's testimony and that the smuggler's account of the incident was completely accurate. Although we will never know exactly what happened that day, the jury's decision preserves the right of self-defense.