How can a memoir be used against you in court?
That is how investigators and prosecutors found possible evidence to finally resolve a decades-long cold case involving the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996.
Considered one of America’s most high-profile unresolved killings, the trial of Shakur’s alleged killer, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, now 63, finally began on Monday, with jury selection in Las Vegas.
A 30-year-old murder that became a cold case
The murder took place on the night of September 7, 1996, when the then-25-year-old Shakur was wounded after watching a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas.
Six days later, the rapper died.
Prosecutors said the murder was revenge against Shakur after he and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight beat up Davis’s nephew, Crips member Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, in retaliation for an attack against a Death Row employee.
After the boxing match, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson, and others pulled up beside Shakur’s car, and seconds later, shots were fired, fatally wounding Shakur.
Due to a lack of evidence, the case remained unsolved.
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The memoir that brought the case back into focus
After years of mystery, the case finally saw a flicker of light in 2019 when Davis published a memoir, recounting the events surrounding the murder.
Davis wrote in that book about the events on the night of September 1996, recounting how he was in the front seat of the Cadillac and even telling how he handed the pistol to those in the back seat.
However, he did not elaborate on who really opened fire on Shakur.
Except for Davis, those who were with him in the Cadillac are all dead.
Due to the revelations written in the memoir, Davis was arrested in September 2023.
What prosecutors hope to prove at trial
As the trial against Davis started, prosecutors wanted to prove that he was responsible for the attack.
While he was not the one who shot Shakur, prosecutors wanted to establish that Davis ordered the killing and provided the gun used to kill the rapper.
This makes the memoir an integral part of the prosecution’s attempt to connect Davis to the shooting.
Meanwhile, Davis’s defense lawyers have tried to prevent their client’s book from being introduced as evidence, as well as his statements in 2008 while he was treated as a witness to the killing.
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Davis maintains his innocence
After his arrest in 2023, Davis pleaded not guilty to the murder, claiming he was innocent and had never killed anybody.
In a March 2025 interview, Davis claimed that he was not in Las Vegas, but in Los Angeles, on the night of the shooting, and that he had never read his own memoirs, insisting that his co-author inflated the story to generate sales.
Davis claimed that he simply provided his co-author with details about his life, and that the latter conducted his own investigation and wrote the book.
The prosecution, however, will have an opportunity to present the memoir and Davis’s previous statements as evidence to the jury.
If Davis is convicted, he could face life in prison.
Who fired the fatal shots?
While the prosecution has found a breakthrough in the case, one question remains unsolved: Who actually fired the shots?
That leaves the trial with a potentially unusual outcome.
It could establish whether Davis was criminally responsible for Shakur’s murder without conclusively establishing who pulled the trigger.
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