Punishment Without Crime

[cyberghostface]

 

I sometimes post Bradbury stories around this time of year. Here is one I haven't shared yet.

This from The Ray Bradbury Chronicles #2. 



We find out that he wants to kill his wife for having an affair with a younger man. When he meets up with her robot duplicate, he can't bring himself to kill her because she's not guilty of what his wife did. The robot insists that she is her and can only act as his wife does and taunts him about the affair.



As he leaves he is arrested by police for murder.



His wife comes to visit him but he refuses to see her, saying he killed her.

Comments

[thanekos]

" The Ray Bradbury Theater "'s adaptation of this was good - Donald Pleasance as George.

[metadronos]

Normally I'm a Bradbury fan, and this adaptation is well done, reminiscent of the classic EC adaptations of his stories. But the premise simply doesn't make sense. Why even prosecute, let alone execute, someone for murdering not the actual human being they have a beef with, but a (I'm assuming) non-sapient robot copy of them?

Now if the premise involved kidnapping the actual Katie and others, and stowing them away somewhere while the robot duplicates took their place, that would indeed be a serious felony deserving punishment, even if Marionettes Inc. released them safe and sound. (Though still not deserving of the death penalty.)

[arthur_wynne]

I haven't read the story that this adapts, but the scans give me the impression that the robots are such perfect duplicates that they are consideret sapient by at least a vocal minority in the depicted society, and the treatment of such androids is a hot-button social issue.