Overview
- Duane “Keefe D” Davis told investigators on Saturday he will not accept a plea deal and insists he had no role in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing.
- A judge on July 28 ruled prosecutors may introduce Davis’s 2008 police interview and his 2019 memoir as evidence, which contain detailed statements prosecutors say tie him to the shooting.
- Jury selection is scheduled to begin on August 10 and the admission of those materials sets up a central legal fight over how the jury may use Davis’s prior statements.
- Davis has publicly recanted parts of his earlier accounts, saying the statements and book passages were done for money or by ghostwriters and that he was not in Nevada when the shooting occurred.
- Michael Samft recently took over as lead defense lawyer and plans to press evidentiary challenges at trial, and prosecutors point to Davis’s statements as key because many other alleged participants are dead.