Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of a Compton gang, has been sentenced to 40 years to life for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. The sentence was handed down on Tuesday, October 13, by Judge Carli Kierny in Las Vegas.
According to CBS News, the 63-year-old Davis was convicted in August of murder with a deadly weapon. CNN reports the court found him guilty of first-degree murder on August 31. He was credited with 731 days already spent in custody. Davis did not plead guilty. During the trial, the prosecution said it would drop part of the charge concerning acting on behalf of a gang.
What the convicted man said
At the hearing, Davis spoke briefly. According to CBS, he asked for the return of items police had taken from his home, including photographs, and added that he had nothing more to say. “You can’t take a man away from his family… and just walk away” – the judge reportedly said, as quoted by the “Guardian”.
How the case unfolded
Tupac Shakur was shot in September 1996 in Las Vegas and died at the age of 25. Davis is the only person charged in the case. As CNN writes, the murder weapon was never found over almost three decades, and witnesses stayed silent, abiding by the gang code.
The prosecution relied mainly on Davis’s own words. He spoke about his role in interviews, documents and podcasts, and in 2019 published a book with his version of events. According to CNN, Judge Kierny ruled these statements admissible as evidence.
Prosecutor Binu Palal argued that Davis “hunted” Shakur in revenge for the rapper and Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records, beating his nephew. According to the prosecution, the shots were fired from a white Cadillac in which Davis was sitting. The prosecutor acknowledged that Davis’s accounts partly differed across his subsequent statements. Defense attorney Michael Sanft disputed the prosecution’s theories.
What it means
A “40 years to life” sentence in the American system means a penalty with parole possible only after serving a minimum period; the exact rules are set by Nevada state law. Given the convicted man’s age of 63, in practice this means a very long prison term. It is not yet known whether the defense will appeal. As of publication, no official statement from Shakur’s family about the sentence had been found either.
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