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Tupac Shakur murder trial opens for ex-gang leader charged over 1996 killing
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Jury selection began on Monday (Aug 10) in the murder trial of an ex-street gang leader accused of masterminding the drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur three decades ago in Las Vegas, a long-unsolved crime that became a seminal moment in rap music history.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is charged in Clark County, Nevada, with a single count of murder by use of a deadly weapon.
Davis is accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur, 25, one of rap's most commercially successful and influential artists, in a 1996 drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip.
The killing heightened the image of violence permeating hip-hop culture and its lyrics during "gangsta" rap's golden age, stoking the infamous East Coast-West Coast rap feud of that era.
The trial before Judge Carli Kierny is expected to run for up to six weeks in a downtown Las Vegas courthouse.