Little Brother (short story)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

For the Masters of Science Fiction episode, see Little Brother (Masters of Science Fiction).

"Little Brother" is a short story by Walter Mosley that appeared in his 2001 book of dystopian short stories Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World. The story features Frendon Ibrahim Blythe, a prisoner of the "newly instituted, and almost fully automated Sac'm Justice System"^[1] in a futuristic version of Sacramento, California. He is being tried for the murder of Officer Terrance Bernard and the assault of his partner, Omar LaTey. Blythe's brain is connected to the computer "judge" through a plastic tube attached to the base of his skull, which allows the System free access to the contents and physiology of his brain. The tube is part of Restraint Mobile Device 27, or RMD 27, an automated "guard." In eliminating human juries and judges, the Sac'm system has essentially created a black-and-white justice system wherein it is impossible to claim justifiable homicide. Blythe must find a way to outwit his virtual judge in order to prove his innocence and avoid the death penalty, the automatic result of a murder charge in the Sac'm System.

Mosley himself adapted the story into an episode of Masters of Science Fiction directed by Darnell Martin and starring Clifton Collins Jr..^[2]