Overview
- Opening statements began Monday, Aug. 17, as a 16-member jury of 12 jurors and four alternates was seated to hear a case expected to last several weeks.
- Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon for allegedly organizing the drive-by that killed Tupac Shakur and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
- The prosecution is hinging its case on Davis’s 2019 memoir and on-record interviews in which he discussed being in the Cadillac and handing a gun to others, materials a judge admitted into evidence.
- Investigators lack new physical proof tying Davis to the shooting: the Cadillac and murder weapon were not recovered and the three other men in the car that night are deceased.
- The trial will test decades-old memory and credibility as prosecutors call dozens of witnesses while key potential eyewitness Marion “Suge” Knight has said he will not cooperate.