Tupac Shakur Murder Suspect Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis Asks for Charges to be Dismissed in New Filing

It took nearly 30 years after the fact to arrest the only man charged with the murder of famed rapper Tupac Shakur, and the alleged killer’s attorney now says that delay is exactly one of the reasons those charges should be dismissed.

In a motion filed Monday in Las Vegas, Duane “Keffe D” Davis said his constitutional rights have been violated through an “unjustified” prolonged delay that has resulted in “the obscuration of memories, the death or disappearance of witnesses, and the loss or destruction of material physical evidence.”

“The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as early as 2009 was in possession of the same set of facts that the Clark County District Attorney now alleges makes Mr. Davis responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” Davis’ attorney said. , Carl Arnold, in his report. filing, alleging that the Clark County District Attorney’s Office “has offered no reason as to why it waited another 14 years to prosecute a case against” its client, and that Davis’ case had been “irreversibly” compromised, its rights violated “in an extraordinary manner never before seen in the annals of the American criminal justice system.”

Arnold argued that prosecutors have no corroborating evidence other than Davis’ confessions that the evidence “comes solely from Mr. Davis’ statements,” and without independent sets of facts the charge against him “must be dismissed.”

“Too many witnesses have died and a lack of evidence has occurred during the prosecution’s delay in this matter,” Arnold said, detailing the names of those allegedly at the scene of Shakur’s 1996 shooting near the Las Vegas Strip from Suge Knight, driving the BMW with Shakur, to the three men allegedly in the Cadillac with Davis, to Sean “Diddy” Combs, who Davis claimed requested a $1 million hit against Knight and Shakur, as ABC News has reported.

But since all of these men are dead or incarcerated, Arnold said, they are unfortunately not available.

To make matters worse, Arnold argued, an immunity agreement that Davis was initially promised by the police officers who prompted him to begin telling his story is not being honored.

Combs has long vehemently denied any involvement in the Shakur shooting.

As ABC News reported last year, Davis confessed his role in Shakur’s 2008 homicide to detectives from a joint federal and Los Angeles task force.

According to police at the time, Davis made his confessions as part of what is known as a “proffer agreement,” so what he told investigators could not be used against him in court.

Then in 2009, Davis sat down with Las Vegas detectives to tell his side of the story again, and again confirmed his role as the “decision maker” in Shakur’s murder, police said.

Arnold now maintains that the original offer should still stand.

“The State of Nevada was in possession in 2009 of the events that led to (Davis) arrest in 2023, specifically, his alleged statement that he was in the white Cadillac and handed the gun to the backseat passengers, which was used to shoot Tupac Shakur,” Arnold said, and prosecutors “must now honor the agreement of initial offer in 2008 and the LVMPD’s promise not to prosecute Mr. Davis.”

Davis’ attorney argues that prosecutors “are refusing to honor the agreements provided to Mr. Davis by the federal government and the LVMPD.”

But the LVMPD had no role in the joint task force agreement, and Las Vegas detectives never promised to prosecute Davis, according to interview recordings and transcripts previously reviewed by ABC — they just weren’t there to arrest Davis in the moment of that confession. , which was not an offer but rather a voluntary statement, prosecutors said, and in fact at the time Davis acknowledged that no Las Vegas authority had promised him anything.

At the time, in 2009, there was concern among Las Vegas authorities that Davis would argue in court that both sets of alleged confessions were inadmissible because the offer granted him immunity even though Las Vegas police had no role in completion of the deal, officials told ABC.

And, they thought, if a judge sided with Davis, that would probably have doomed any trial.

But in the years that followed, that ceased to be an issue because Davis would eventually repeatedly recount his confessional role in the murder, not only to police but also to the media, including in a 2018 documentary series and in the pages of the magazines. memoirs he wrote. would publish in 2019.

Davis’s own public words revitalized the investigation, Las Vegas homicide bureau leader Lt. Jason Johansson told ABC last year, and would be key to the case against him and ultimately land him in Las Vegas jail. Vegas where he has now been. detained since his arrest in September 2023.

A hearing to discuss Davis’ motion to dismiss was scheduled for Jan. 21.

His trial is scheduled for March 17.