A former gang member’s murder trial concerning the unsolved shooting death of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur began with jury selection on Monday, almost 30 years after the influential rapper was shot and killed.
Duane (Keffe D) Davis, 63, faces a single count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur’s death in 1996. Davis, who has been in custody since 2023, has pleaded not guilty. The trial, which is taking place in Las Vegas, where the shooting took place, starts with jury selection, and is expected to last about a month.
Prosecutors in the trial will not attempt to prove that Davis pulled the trigger. Instead, they’ll try to convince a jury that he was the “shot caller” — slang for a leader or decision maker — of the group that targeted Shakur in the Sept. 7, 1996, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.
Wearing a blue dress shirt and tie, Davis sat quietly next to his attorney Monday while Nevada Judge Carli Kierny asked a group of 75 potential jurors questions, including if they have any medical issues, language barriers or conflicts with serving.
‘Justice is a little bit weakened’
William Leslane, Shakur’s cousin, said the trial may bring accountability, but that it’s too little, too late to bring justice.
“Justice has been foregone years ago. The night my cousin was murdered — there should have been an intense investigation at that time,” he said in an interview.
“We’re here 30 years later, so justice is a little bit weakened.”
Much of the evidence in the case will come from a book Davis co-wrote. In his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, the former high-ranking member of the South Side Compton Crips gang wrote about his alleged role in the shooting.
Shakur, who was 25 when he died, was one of rap’s brightest rising stars, known for hits such as Dear Mama and California Love. Though born in New York City, Shakur was associated with West Coast hip-hop. He released four solo albums during his life, followed by six posthumous albums.
At the time of his death, Tupac was signed with Death Row Records, which was one of rap’s most notorious labels.
Marion (Suge) Knight, the co-founder and then-CEO of Death Row Records, was with Shakur when he was shot. Knight, the only other living witness to the shooting, told ABC News last week that he will not co-operate with law enforcement and does not want to testify.
Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman outside a burger stand in January 2015.
The night of the shooting
Shakur and Knight were in Las Vegas the night of Sept. 7 to watch a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Following the fight, the pair drove around Las Vegas in a Death Row-owned BMW.
At approximately 11:15 p.m., a Cadillac pulled up next to them and fired multiple shots, hitting Shakur four times. Though Knight was also injured in the shooting, he managed to drive the car away and got the attention of emergency services. Shakur died from his injuries six days later on Sept. 13.
The murder spurred intense speculation and conspiracy theories about the perpetrators and the circumstances of the shooting, including theories that Shakur had not died.
Tensions were high at the time between East and West Coast rappers. The rivalry fuelled theories that rapper Notorious B.I.G. — Shakur’s New York-based adversary — was involved. He died in a shooting less than a year later.
What Davis wrote about the shooting
In his book, Davis said the shooting of Shakur was about revenge. Earlier that evening, he wrote, his nephew, Baby Lane, said people from Death Row had attacked him.
He wrote in his book that Shakur, Knight and others “didn’t have any business putting their hands on Baby Lane. Them jumping on my nephew gave us the green light to want to do something to their ass.”
Davis also said that Shakur was “a guppy that got swallowed up by some ferocious sharks. He shouldn’t have ever got involved in that bullshit of trying to be a thug.”
Davis and his gang were able to find Shakur’s car because he was greeting fans and waving to them from the window of the BMW. Had he not been hanging out of the window, Davis said, the gang would not have seen him.
Davis recalled the shooting in detail. He did not mention who fired the fatal shots, but said he threw the pistol that killed Shakur into the back seat.
He said Knight immediately recognized them when their Cadillac pulled up to the BMW.
“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Davis wrote.
He said he saw Tupac pull out a gun. “That’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” Davis wrote.
Case hinges on 3 pieces of evidence: law prof
Lucius Outlaw III, an associate law professor at Howard University, said three pieces of evidence will be key at the trial — the memoir, the interviews Davis gave to promote the memoir, and the interview Davis gave to investigators.
He expects Yusuf Jah, who co-wrote Davis’s book, will be an important witness.
“The defence is going to lean heavily into the involvement of the co-writer to say, look, jury, you can’t take this as face value, because these really aren’t Mr. Davis’s words,” he said.
“The prosecution, on the other side, are going to say ‘[Davis] gave interviews saying it’s 100 per cent accurate.’ “
Shakur’s legacy
Davis wrote in his book that he regrets the shooting.
“At this point in my life, I can say that I have a deep sense of remorse for what happened to Tupac,” he said. “Pac was a talented artist with tons of potential.”
Shakur’s music often had political themes. He was primarily raised by his mother, Afeni Shakur, who was a member of the Black Panther Party. He was an avid reader and often went by the name “Makaveli” as a tribute to political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli.
Shakur was also an actor, starring in the 1992 film Juice and and 1993’s Poetic Justice among other movies. He also wrote poetry and previously worked as a backup dancer.
For A.D. Carson, a rapper and associate professor of hip-hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia, Shakur’s talent across so many different fields stands out.
“You couldn’t say that Tupac was static. He was an incredibly dynamic artist,” said Carson.
“He was doing this dynamic thing in hip-hop, at a time where hip-hop was not the globally recognized set of art forms that it is currently.”
