Witness refuses to implicate defendant in Tupac murder trial, citing street code

Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting at age 25 in 1996; the case involves gang violence and ongoing community trauma.

Thirty years after Tupac Shakur was shot dead on a Las Vegas street, a Las Vegas courtroom is discovering what investigators long suspected: that the code of silence binding those who witnessed or knew of the killing may prove more durable than any legal oath. On Tuesday, witness James McDonald — a former Death Row Records enforcer — refused under oath to offer testimony that might condemn defendant Duane Davis, not out of loyalty or love, but out of a street ethic that predates the trial and may outlast it. The case raises an enduring question about whether justice, in its formal institutiona

Witness refuses to implicate defendant in Tupac murder trial, citing street code

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