A murder trial opened this week in connection with the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, nearly three decades after the iconic artist was shot and killed in Las Vegas following a boxing match. The case, long considered one of the most high-profile unsolved crimes in American pop culture history, has finally reached the courtroom after investigators spent years building a case.

Tupac Shakur was 25 years old when he was shot multiple times on September 7, 1996, while riding in a car driven by Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. He died six days later. The killing sent shockwaves through the music world and spawned decades of speculation, investigative journalism, and law enforcement scrutiny.

Duane Keith Davis, also known as "Keffe D," was arrested in 2023 and charged with murder in connection with the shooting. Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the attack. Davis, who had spoken publicly about his alleged knowledge of the crime in interviews and a memoir over the years, has pleaded not guilty. His trial is now underway in Clark County, Nevada.

The case draws on witness testimony, forensic evidence, and Davis's own prior public statements, which investigators reportedly used as part of the basis for the indictment. Defense attorneys are expected to challenge the reliability of those statements and the strength of the evidence against their client.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. For many who followed Shakur's career and the circumstances of his death, the proceedings represent a long-overdue reckoning with a case that went unresolved for nearly a generation.