Forbes Staff.
Siladitya Ray is a New Delhi-based Forbes news team reporter.
Topline
A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty in the murder of Tupac Shakur on Monday, nearly 30 years after the rap icon was gunned down in Las Vegas in an infamous drive-by shooting.
Duane Davis was convicted by a jury of first degree murder for his involvement in the killing of Tupac Shakur.
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Key Facts
Davis, 63, was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang.
The sentencing date has been set for October 13, and Davis faces a life in prison sentence without parole for his murder conviction.
After the sentencing date was announced, Davis told the judge he would appeal the verdict and later raised his fist as he left the courtroom.
The prosecutors also dismissed a gang enhancement charge against him, blaming “witness logistics.”
The rapper’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur was in the courtroom when the verdict was read and was seen crying and hugging the prosecutors.
What Else Do We Know About The Murder Conviction?
Davis, a leader of the Southside Compton Crips gang, is the first and only person to be charged in the killing of Shakur so far. Prosecutors, however, didn’t argue that he pulled the trigger himself but rather played a role in orchestrating the killing and being the “shot caller”. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said Davis “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight on the night of the murder after his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson was beaten up by the duo. Davis is the only person alive who was in the car from which the shots were fired, the prosecutors noted.
What Did The Prosecution Say In Their Closing Argument?
In the prosecution’s closing arguments, Palal said Davis’ own statements and confessions in the media about his involvement were “direct evidence” of a crime and, in addition to that, the case was “drenched in circumstantial evidence” and corroborating witnesses. “For nearly 18 years, Duane Davis has told the police, television, books, YouTube interviewers — anybody that will listen, he has told — he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” said Palal. “Tell him you hear him — find him guilty.”
What Was The Defense’s Closing Argument?
Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that no physical evidence is present connecting Davis to the shooting and said that the book co-authored by him and the various public interviews about the murder were inconsistent and “they all conflict.” Sanft pointed out that in his book “Compton Street Legend,” Davis wrote that on the night of the murder, he spotted Shakur in his car after hearing women yell his name—something not corroborated by two witnesses. He added that: “We are reading a book that is fiction and not fact, but the state wants you to believe that this is somehow a confession that he was there and present at the time of the shooting.”
Key Background
For nearly 30 years, the death of Tupac Shakur, who was only 25 at the time, remained one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history. The rapper’s killing became the subject of scores of documentaries, books and even conspiracy theories as it continued to draw the attention of hip-hop fans and crime sleuths. Shakur rose to stardom in the mid 90s and was considered one of the icons of West Coast hip hop. On September 13, 1996, Shakur and Suge Knight, the co-founder and former CEO of his label Death Row Records, were driving around Las Vegas when they were struck by multiple bullets in a drive-by shooting carried out from a White Cadillac. Shakur would die one week later, while Knight survived. The most broadly accepted theory is that Davis’ nephew Anderson fired the bullets that killed Shakur. Anderson was arrested after the shooting but never charged and he was killed in an unrelated shooting in 1998. The case gained renewed attention after Davis spoke about his role in the killed in a 2018 documentary and his co-authored book. Davis admitted he was in the White Cadillac at the time of the murder and supplied the gun to his nephew. In 2023, police conducted a search of Davis’s wife’s home and later that year he was charged with the murder.
further reading
Tupac’s Family Files New Wrongful Death Lawsuit In Rapper’s 1996 Murder (Forbes)
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