Tupac Shakur Murder Trial Begins 30 Years Later, Jurors Hear 'Revenge' Motive

• Duane 'Keffe D' Davis stood trial in Las Vegas on Monday, 30 years after Tupac Shakur was shot dead in 1996
• Prosecutors told jurors Davis ordered the killing as an act of gang revenge after his nephew was publicly beaten
• Mzansi and the rest of the world reacted with shock, demanding justice for the late rap legend

One of America's most high-profile cold cases finally reached a courtroom on Monday, 18 August, as the trial of the man accused of ordering Tupac Shakur's murder got under way in Las Vegas — three decades after the rap icon was gunned down.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, faced a jury as prosecutor Binu Pilal laid out the state's case. According to Pilal, Davis ordered the 1996 killing as retaliation after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was beaten in a very public and humiliating incident.

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"On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson," Pilal told the court.

Shakur was shot while travelling in a car in Las Vegas on that same night. He died six days later, on 13 September 1996, aged 25. Davis allegedly boasted about his role in the murder in the years that followed, according to the prosecution.

Fans ask what took so long?

The case sat unsolved for nearly three decades, fuelling countless conspiracy theories and keeping Shakur's death at the centre of pop culture conversation. Davis was only arrested in September 2023, after investigators said his own public statements and a memoir effectively implicated him.

News of the trial's opening spread quickly on social media, drawing strong reactions from South African users who had grown up listening to Tupac's music.

@Sonndi_M asked: "What were they doing that took them 30 years to prosecute? I thought only happens here."

@BillGardenSA wrote: "Justice must be served for Tupac."

@Ndi_nne_TT1 was blunt: "He killed my all-time fav. He should rot in jail."

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@ghadafi84 called for the harshest possible sentence: "Death sentence."

@seyicool reflected on how the chain of events unfolded: "So sad… revenge???? Just so sad…. How did beating someone turn into unaliving?"

@McMbulazi summed up the mood of many fans: "He killed the greatest entertainer of all time."

The trial is expected to draw global attention as prosecutors attempt to secure a conviction in a case that has haunted the music world for a generation.

Source: Briefly News