Tupac Trial Opens as Prosecutors Call Rapper’s Murder an Act of Revenge

Shakur was shot on the Las Vegas Strip on 7 September 1996 and died six days later, in a killing that went unsolved for decades, spawning the conspiracy theories that have trailed 2Pac ever since. Davis, charged in 2023, is the only person ever arrested over the shooting. Opening statements followed a week of jury selection, according to BBC reporters in court in Las Vegas.

What the Tupac trial hinges on

The prosecution case rests largely on Compton Street Legend, the 2019 memoir in which Davis wrote that he supplied the gun. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors Davis arranged the killing to avenge a beating handed out to his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.

Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew. Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal

Davis’s defence dismissed the memoir as fiction. His attorney, Michael Sanft, asked jurors: “What facts do they have after 30 years?” The Hollywood Reporter reported Sanft telling jurors Davis “was never charged for any of what he said”.

Four witnesses took the stand on day one, including Garry Dale, the Las Vegas police officer who rode in the ambulance with Shakur. Suge Knight, the former Death Row Records boss who was driving the car Shakur was shot in, is expected to feature as the trial goes on.