Nearly three decades after the murder of Tupac Shakur shocked the music world, the lone man charged in connection with the 1996 killing is asking Nevada’s highest court to dismiss the case against him.

Attorneys for Duane “Keffe D” Davis filed an appeal this week with the Nevada Supreme Court, arguing that the charges should be thrown out due to alleged constitutional violations and a decades-long delay in prosecution. The move comes after a Clark County judge in January denied Davis’ original motion to dismiss, ruling there was insufficient evidence to support claims of immunity and that the lengthy delay did not violate due process.

Davis, 61, was arrested in September 2023 and charged with first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, accused of playing a leading role in orchestrating the drive-by shooting that ultimately killed Shakur. The rapper was shot on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996, and died six days later from his injuries. Davis has pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since his arrest.

The state’s case relies heavily on Davis’ own public statements, particularly those made in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. In the book, Davis described being in the Cadillac that pulled up alongside Shakur’s vehicle and claimed knowledge of who pulled the trigger. Prosecutors allege Davis provided the gun and coordinated the attack as retaliation for a fight earlier that evening involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, following a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand.

But Davis’ defense argues those statements should never be used in court. According to his attorney Carl Arnold, Davis cooperated with federal investigators in the late 1990s and again in 2008 and 2009 under what he believed were immunity agreements. Arnold contends that law enforcement gave Davis repeated assurances his statements would not be used to prosecute him and now those very accounts form the backbone of the state’s murder case.

“Mr. Davis cooperated with law enforcement over the course of more than a decade, relying on repeated assurances that his statements would not be used against him,” Arnold said in a statement to ABC News. “Yet those very statements now form the core of the state’s case.”

The latest appeal argues that because there is no physical evidence tying Davis to the shooting and because the prosecution’s case rests entirely on his own statements the charges should not proceed. Arnold also claims that the 27-year delay in prosecution has made it difficult to mount a proper defense.

In denying the initial motion to dismiss, the district court found no binding immunity agreement had been established and concluded that the delay in filing charges was not purposeful, but rather a result of investigative challenges.

Prosecutors, for their part, maintain that Davis played a central role in Shakur’s death and that he knowingly confessed to his involvement multiple times without the protection of immunity. They say the evidence, while largely self-incriminating, is valid and admissible.

Davis’ legal team also secured a postponement of the trial, originally scheduled for this year. Citing the need for additional time to locate witnesses and further investigate the case, the court agreed to move the trial to February 2026.

The Nevada Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the appeal.