Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man facing a looming murder trial over the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, is now asking the Nevada Supreme Court to toss out the charges.
Months after a judge allowed the case to proceed to trial, Davis’ lawyers are urging the state’s top court to overturn that decision – arguing that prosecutors lack any hard evidence and are instead relying on decades-old statements that should be off-limits.
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“This prosecution has captured worldwide attention,” writes defense attorney Carl Arnold in the Tuesday court filing, obtained by Billboard. “The global public is watching how Nevada upholds due process, fairness, and the rule of law in one of the most closely scrutinized criminal proceedings in recent memory.”
The drive-by shooting that killed Tupac and the subsequent murder of rival Notorious B.I.G. have for decades been two of music’s great unsolved mysteries. But in September 2023, Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with first-degree murder over allegations that he orchestrated the Shakur slaying.
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The 62-year-old, a former Crips gang leader from Los Angeles, had repeatedly admitted involvement in the killing, including in a 2019 tell-all memoir in which he says he obtained the gun and handed it to his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who allegedly pulled the trigger. Anderson has since died, as have others who were allegedly in the car.
Since his arrest, Davis has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly maintained his innocence, including by publicly arguing that did not write the book: “They can’t even place me out here,” he told ABC in a March jailhouse interview.
In January, his lawyers moved to have the charges thrown out, arguing that the state was planning an “illegal trial” that would violate his client’s constitutional rights: “They need to have something else, a gun, a witness, something else that puts this gentleman, those three co-conspirators in the car,” Arnold argued during a court hearing.
But weeks later, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny denied that motion, allowing the case to move ahead toward a courtroom showdown. A jury trial is currently scheduled for February 2026.
Appealing that ruling on Tuesday, lawyers for Davis again cite a lack of concrete evidence to support the decades-delayed charges. They say the case is built only on his purported confessions, including during interviews with investigators in which Davis was promised immunity. Outside those statements, they say prosecutors have no real proof.
“Nevada law is unambiguous: a conviction cannot rest solely on an uncorroborated extrajudicial statement,” Arnold writes. “The State has offered nothing to corroborate the trustworthiness of Mr. Davis’s alleged statements, and nothing independently connecting him to the murder itself.”
Such arguments are sometimes made on appeal after a trial has already been held, seeking to overturn a conviction. But lawyers for Davis say top court must jump in now, warning that post-trial appeals could add years to a case that has already seen “extraordinary delay.”
“Although Mr. Davis was not charged until 2023, the prosecution arises from a homicide that occurred in 1996—nearly three decades ago,” his lawyers say. “The Court should exercise its discretion to hear the petition on the merits now—before the damage is done.”
