Duane “Keffe D” Davis insists he’s innocent and is confident he will eventually be released from prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 death.
Last Friday (Sept. 4), The Hollywood Reporter published Keffe D’s first interview since being found guilty by a Clark County jury just days earlier. Echoing claims he made in the courtroom upon being convicted, Keffe told THR that he’s banking on an appeal to set him free.
“Sh*t, I ain’t worried. I’m getting out on an appeal,” he told the publication immediately upon meeting with them.
“We already filed it before the trial even started. They violated my civil rights!” he added.
However, this contradicts the brief conversation he had with Judge Carli Kierny during his verdict. At the time, Keffe told her he would like to file an appeal, and she informed him that he will have to wait until after his sentencing.
Elsewhere in his new interview, Keffe D revealed the reason he didn’t take the stand during trial was because his lawyer told him it would mess up his chances at the appeal. He also asserted his innocence, explaining that he lied when “admitting” to being involved in Pac’s murder while talking to federal agents in the late 2000s because he was trying to secure his freedom from an ongoing drug case he had.
“We didn’t do that sh*t, dog,” he insisted. “My lawyer had written up that script for me — him and [late Los Angeles Times journalist] Chuck Philips.”
He says he then continued pushing the narrative in later interviews and even his 2019 book Compton Street Legend because it brought in money and he had immunity anyway. And it’s said immunity that he feels will be a slam dunk with his appeal, as he noted it was handed down by the federal government and Nevada is illegally overriding it on a state level.
“The DOJ gave me a deal, and the Ninth Circuit Court is not going to go for that — the federal government gave me a deal,” he said. “This ain’t nothing but a f**king county jail. This ain’t nothing but a broke-a*s county. […] But Las Vegas, they break all the rules out here, dude.”
Check out the full interview here.
Keffe D is set to be sentenced on October 13. He faces life in prison.
See the Current Status of Every Murdered Rapper’s Case
XXL takes a look at the current status of the cases of hip-hop murders that have occurred over the past 39 years.
