A Florida man who kidnapped a young girl and fed her to alligators before she died now faces the death penalty.

Harrel Braddy, 76, kidnapped Quatisha Maycock, five, and her mother Shandelle in November 1998 after meeting them at church.

Braddy drove Shandelle to a remote sugar field and choked her until she was unconscious and left her to die. The mother somehow survived when she woke up and flagged down a driver for help.

Braddy also left the woman's daughter, Quatisha, alive near a section of the Everglades ominously known as Alligator Alley, apparently afraid that she would identify him.

The child was discovered dead two days later in a canal, allegedly after being attacked by alligators.

A medical examiner said she was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach. The young girl's left arm was missing when her body was found.

Braddy had already been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2007 after a jury trial.

However, he is now back in court after changes to Florida's death penalty laws reopened his sentencing - raising the possibility that he could still avoid execution.

Quatisha Maycock, five, died in November 1998 after being kidnapped by Harrel Braddy in Florida

Braddy, 76, is back in court and again faces the death penalty for the five-year-old girl's death. Jury selection began Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court

This week, jury selection began in his resentencing trial.

The killer could face the death penalty under Florida's 2023 law that allows a death sentence to be imposed with an 8-4 jury vote.

Prosecutors said that he targeted Shandelle after she had repeatedly rejected his romantic advances.

Braddy told detectives that he had left the child near a section of Interstate 75 in Broward County, best known as Alligator Alley.

He claimed to have left the little girl alive on the side of the road at a bridge crossing over a canal.

Braddy explained that he had done this because he was worried that Quatisha would tell people what he had done to her mother. 

He also admitted that he 'knew' Quatisha 'would probably die', according to court filings. 

In 2007, Braddy was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death following a jury trial

Quatisha's body was discovered two days later in a canal by two fishermen.

An autopsy determined that her left arm, which was missing when her body was found, had been bitten off by an alligator postmortem.

The court also heard that Quatisha had suffered alligator bites to her chest and head while still alive, although she was likely unconscious.

The young girl's body had injuries to her lips, consistent with fish feeding on her corpse, as well as other alligator bites.