@meghannmcuniff: The judge in next month's trial over Tupac Shakur's murder said Tuesday that jurors can hear about the defendant's purported status as a gang "green light." Lawyer Michael Sanft, who represents Duane D. "Keefe D" Davis, argued people who live where Davis lived in Compton "become associated with that particular thing" in the neighborhood. "I have a concern about the idea that now they're going to try to shoehorn in this idea that he's a shot caller just by the fact of just using the words and saying he was a shot caller," Sanft said. "What about his own words?" asked Judge Carli Kierny, who presides in Nevada's 8th Judicial District in Las Vegas. Sanft said prosecutors should have to wait to see how the evidence comes in and not mention in opening statements that Davis was a gang shot caller. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said Davis being the "green light" is "specifically pulled from Mr. Davis's own words." Shot caller "is a term of art within gang hierarchy" and "the person who actually has the ability to direct orders onto other people," DiGiacomo said. "Using Mr. Davis's own words from his book, he was the general, he was the president, he was a person that had the authority to make this happen. These are his own words," DiGiacomo said. The judge said prosecutors can use gang-related evidence "to establish motive regarding the issue." The trial will be split into two phases: one regarding guilty or not guilty for murder, and the other regarding whether Davis was affiliated with a criminal street gang, which would increase his prison sentence if the jury agrees he was. She said the term "green light" can't be excised, but she'll see how testimony comes in regarding the term "shot caller." Jury selection is scheduled to begin on August 10. The judge said she expects "multiple days of large panels" for jury selection and "probably a lot of people that maybe ultimately cannot be fair in the situation." Davis, 63, is accused of organizing the fatal shooting as part of a feud between the South Side Crips and the Mob Piru gang, which was tied to the Bloods, and as retaliation for a fight involving Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson, Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight, who was injured in the shooting. #law #crime #court

Meghann Cuniff

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Wednesday 01 July 2026 14:23:38 GMT