The lawyer who filed Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ appeal in the Tupac Shakur murder case won’t be around to argue it. Michael Sanft submitted the notice of appeal on Oct. 30 and died a week later.
That leaves the next chapter of one of hip hop’s longest running cases with a big question mark hanging over it.
The Clerk of the Nevada Supreme Court filed the case electronically on Monday, Nov. 9, according to court filings reported by KSNV in Las Vegas.
The appeal is officially on the books, even though Davis has lost the attorney who carried him through trial.
A jury found Davis guilty of first degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for the 1996 shooting of Shakur near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas.
He was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. Shakur was shot in September 1996 and died days later at 25, and the case sat unsolved for decades before Davis was arrested in 2023.
Prosecutors built their case around retaliation. They argued Davis arranged the shooting after a fight between Shakur and Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino.
Their evidence leaned heavily on Davis’ own words, pulled from interviews he gave to media and law enforcement over the years.
That’s where the defense pushed back hardest. Sanft told jurors Davis lied about his involvement to cash in on a memoir and documentary interviews, essentially arguing that Davis sold a story rather than confessed to a crime. He also said no evidence placed Davis in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.
It’s a strange position for any defendant, having his own publicly recorded account serve as the backbone of the case against him.
Davis published his memoir, Compton Street Legend, in 2019, and he spent years talking openly about that night before the case against him came together.
For fans who have followed the Tupac case since the nineties, the conviction felt like a long overdue answer.
For skeptics, Sanft’s argument raised a fair point about how much weight a self promoting storyteller’s words should carry when a life sentence is on the line.
How the appeal will proceed following Sanft’s death is still unclear. Davis will need someone new to pick up a case his former attorney knew inside and out.
The clock is already running. The Nevada Supreme Court has given Davis two weeks to file a transcript request form, three weeks to file a docketing statement, and 120 days to submit his opening brief.
