The Long Arm of the Law: Tupac's Legal Troubles in Spring 1996

Original: “The Long Arm of the Law Catches Up to 2Pac” · Music Boulevard (Music Wire) · Peter Hagopian · Spring 1996

A benefit concert, community service before sentencing, and up to 16 months in prison: in spring 1996, Reuters reported that Tupac had pleaded guilty the previous week in a 1994 weapons case. Sentencing was set for September 12. Peter Hagopian picked up the brief wire report for Music Boulevard, portraying an artist out on bail around whom the legal noose was tightening ever further.

Appeal in New York, Probation in Los Angeles

Hagopian listed what else was pending against Tupac at the time. Although he was free on bail, his appeal against his conviction for sexual abuse was still underway in New York. In Los Angeles, meanwhile, the justice system accused him of violating probation conditions.

From a Traffic Stop to a Felony

Behind the report lay a case from Los Angeles. In spring 1994, police pulled Tupac’s car over for speeding and found a semiautomatic pistol. Because he had already been convicted in Los Angeles in 1993 of carrying a concealed weapon, the charge became a felony.

What happened in spring 1996 is well documented. On April 4, 1996, a Los Angeles judge sentenced him to 120 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for violating probation conditions in Los Angeles and New York and failing to show up for a roadside work crew. The court set June 7 as his surrender date. His lawyers immediately appealed; on June 7, according to MTV, the jail term was put on hold in light of other pending cases. After the hearing, Tupac said what scared him was the prosecution’s zeal to put him in prison.

He Did Not Live to See September 12

He did not live to see the date mentioned in the article. Sentencing was scheduled for September 12, 1996; on September 7, Tupac was shot in Las Vegas, and on September 13, he died. His New York appeal was also still undecided at the time of his death.

The accumulation of cases shows the pressure Tupac was under in the final year of his life. He was signed to Death Row, recording album after album and making movies, while at any moment a court could lock him up again. Many of his late lyrics revolve around precisely this mix of success and threat.

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• Tupac Shakur couldn’t escape violence