Tupac Murder Case Defense Attorney Michael Sanft Found Dead at 55

Attorney Michael Sanft, who represented Duane "Keefe D" Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder case, was found dead at his Las Vegas home at the age of 55, just a week after filing an appeal notice. A friend reported that his body was discovered on Friday morning. Police stated that the death does not appear suspicious, though the cause and circumstances are still pending investigation. Sanft is survived by two children.

Sanft, a prominent defense attorney in Nevada, represented Davis pro bono and defended his legal team's work following the conviction. Duane Davis, 63, was convicted of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for his role in the 1996 killing of Shakur, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. On October 30, Sanft filed a notice of appeal.

Tupac Shakur was 25 years old when he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, dying from his wounds six days later. Davis was convicted of orchestrating the murder after previously admitting to his involvement in a 2008 police interview and boasting about it in his 2019 memoir. Hours before the shooting, Shakur had assaulted Orlando Anderson, Davis's nephew, at the MGM Grand casino on the Las Vegas Strip, prompting the retaliatory ambush.