Thirty years on, man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur's murder goes on trial

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, faces trial in Las Vegas for allegedly orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. The trial began on August 10, 2025, and is expected to last four weeks. If found guilty, Davis, 63, could receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The case has remained one of the most infamous unsolved killings in American history, drawing attention from music fans and law enforcement alike. Tupac Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was shot dead during the early hours of September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand casino. His death marked the end of a bitter rivalry between two major hip-hop labels: Death Row Records from the West Coast and Bad Boy Records from the East Coast. Death Row was founded by Marion "Suge" Knight, while Bad Boy was established by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and featured rapper Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was later murdered in March 1997. According to prosecutors, the conflict between the two record labels spilled into real-life violence. After the Tyson fight, Suge Knight and Tupac reportedly assaulted Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the South Side Compton Crips and Davis’s nephew, for allegedly attacking an employee of Death Row. Prosecutors allege that Davis sought revenge for this incident. Later that night, a white Cadillac driven by Davis and containing Anderson and other passengers pulled alongside Tupac’s vehicle. Gunfire erupted, and Tupac was fatally wounded. For decades, the investigation into Tupac’s murder stalled due to a lack of physical evidence. However, the case gained new momentum in 2019 with the release of Davis’s memoirs. In the book, Davis described being in the front seat of the Cadillac and handing a pistol to someone in the back seat, though he did not specify who fired the fatal shots. All other occupants of the vehicle have since died, leaving Davis as the sole living person with direct knowledge of the events that night. These statements, however, were given under different circumstances. Previously, Davis had spoken to journalists about the incident, and those comments were later used against him. Following the publication of his memoirs, Davis was arrested in September 2023. Since then, he has denied the allegations, claiming innocence and asserting that there is no evidence linking him to the murder. In an interview with ABC News in March 2025, he stated that he was in Los Angeles on the night of the killing and that he had never actually read his own memoirs, suggesting that the content was exaggerated by his co-author for commercial purposes. Davis’s legal team attempted to prevent the memoirs and a 2008 police interview from being used as evidence, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The trial will begin with jury selection, which is expected to take a week. Despite the extensive legal process, the outcome is unlikely to satisfy those close to Tupac. In May 2025, his half-brother Maurice Shakur filed a civil lawsuit, alleging that individuals involved in the murder have evaded accountability for three decades. The lawsuit references a recent documentary series that included an interview with Davis, in which he claimed that P. Diddy offered him $1 million to kill Tupac. The trial promises to revisit long-standing tensions between the hip-hop communities of the East and West Coasts, as well as the complex relationships between record labels, gangs, and celebrities. As the proceedings unfold, the focus will remain on whether the prosecution can establish beyond reasonable doubt that Davis was responsible for ordering the attack that ended Tupac’s life.