Rebecca Riley’s Parents To Be Tried Separately
The murder case against the parents of Rebecca Riley–the 4-year-old with alleged child bipolar disorder who died from an overdose of psych meds in December 2006–has become two murder cases because a Massachusetts court has decided to try the parents separately. Carolyn Riley’s case–she’s hte mother of course–will begin on Tuesday. There’s no date set right now for the trial of Rebecca’s father Michael Riley.
I still have a hard time buying murder charges against either parent, but for them to have been jailed pre-trial does tell me a judge thought the evidence against them was compelling. That said, I still don’t see a jury conviction for murder and given the dicey nature of medication use in small children and how imprecise and unresearched such psych med use is, if the jury has any sophistication they won’t get to a murder conviction. Perhaps a lesser-included charge such an involuntary manslaughter.
Stay tuned. My Rebecca Riley back catalog is here.
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