Rebecca Riley’s father convicted
Michael Riley was convicted on Friday of first-degree murder for giving his 4-year-old daughter so much psychiatric medication that she died. He will be sentenced to life in prison without parole, as is mandatory in Massachusetts for first-degree murder.
I wrote about this case earlier, when Rebecca’s mother, Carolyn, was on trial for similar charges. She was convicted of second-degree murder last month.
I completely agree with the first-degree murder conviction. Giving a child mind-altering medication is not acceptable, let alone so much medication that she ends up dead.
In more good news, the psychiatrist who diagnosed Rebecca with various mental disorders and prescribed her several psychiatric drugs, will be investigated by the Board of Registration. She was investigated before but allowed to keep her license. Hopefully the Board will make the right decision this time and she will not be allowed to diagnose any more perfectly okay kids with disorders and fill them with mood-altering medications ever again.