A key element of Shakur's defense was Medical evidence meant to demonstrate that she was shot with her hands up and that she would have been following orders unable to fire a weapon. A person who is skilled to take away diseases from the nerve system testified that the two nerve roots in Shakur's right arm was severed by the second bullet, making her unable to pull a trigger.Neurosurgeon Dr. Arthur Turner Davidson, Associate Professor of Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, testified that the wounds in her upper arms, armpit and chest, and severed median nerve that instantly paralyzed her right arm, would only have been caused if both arms were raised, and that to support such injuries while bending over to be close and firing a weapon"would be respectfully impossible".

Davidson based his testimony on an August 4, 1976 examination of Shakur and on X-rays taken immediately after the shootout at Middlesex General Hospital. Prosecutor Barone questioned whether Davidson was qualified to make such a judgment 39 months after the injury; Barone proceeded to suggest (while a female Sheriff's attendant acted out his suggestion) that Shakur was struck in the right arm and collar bone and "then spun around by the impact of the bullet so an immediate second shot entered the fleshy part of her upper left arm.