Former gang leader Davis sentenced to 40 years for organizing Shakur’s murder — BBC News

In the United States, former gang leader Duane “Keefe D” Davis was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the case of rapper Tupac Shakur’s murder. In September, a jury found the 63-year-old Davis guilty on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.

Shakur was shot in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. He was 25 at the time of his death. The rapper was one of the most influential performers in hip-hop and sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

The prosecution’s position

As BBC News reports, prosecutors argued that Davis did not shoot himself but was the organizer of the group that carried out the murder. According to the prosecution, the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang ordered the shooting and handed over the weapon used by his nephew, Orlando Anderson.

Anderson was killed in another shooting in 1998. During his lifetime, he denied involvement in Shakur’s murder.

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Davis’s testimony

Davis’s own public statements became key evidence in the case. He repeatedly admitted that he was in the white Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired. In his memoir, Compton Street Legend, published in 2019, Davis also wrote that he handed over the weapon used in the crime.

In 2008, Davis gave police a closed interview about his role in Shakur’s death as part of the investigation into the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace. At the time, an agreement with authorities protected him from criminal prosecution, but subsequent statements in the book and media interviews invalidated it. The judge allowed the police interview materials to be used at trial.

Davis’s defense argued to the jury that his comments were fiction and exaggerations intended to sell books and make money. Davis said he would appeal the verdict.