Tupac Shakur Murder Case: Trial of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis Begins After 30 Years

A Las Vegas courtroom is set to become the center of a decades-old mystery as the trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis begins, focusing on the 1996 murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur. Davis, 63, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated the shooting that claimed Shakur's life.

The trial, anticipated to last about a month, will start with jury selection. Prosecutors aim to prove that Davis not only planned the assassination but also provided the weapon used in the drive-by shooting. However, even with this trial, the exact identity of the person who fired the fatal shots on September 7, 1996, may remain elusive.

Shakur, then 25, was fatally shot in Las Vegas while attending a Mike Tyson boxing match. His murder became one of the most prominent unsolved cases in American music history, fueling numerous theories about the perpetrator and motive. At the time, Shakur was a major figure in hip-hop, associated with the intense rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast music scenes.

The proceedings are expected to reignite attention on the conflict between Death Row Records, co-founded by Suge Knight, and Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records on the East Coast. Notorious B.I.G., a star of Bad Boy Records, was murdered in March 1997. Prosecutors allege that these rival record labels were linked to competing gangs, with Death Row reportedly aligned with the Mob Piru gang (part of the Bloods alliance) and Bad Boy Records employing members of Davis's South Side Compton Crips as security.