https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...50911ca9&ei=18

A Miami man who threw a 5-year-old girl into the Everglades and left her to be eaten by alligators could again be condemned to die almost three decades after the girl’s cruel death.

Harrel Braddy, 76, kidnapped Quatisha Maycock, 5, and her mother, Shandelle Maycock — an acquaintance Braddy met in a church group — on the night of Nov. 7, 1998. Braddy beat Shandelle, choked her, put her in the trunk of his car and later left her in a deserted stretch of U.S. 27 near the Broward-Palm Beach county line, according to prosecutors. She survived.

Now, a new jury will hear details of the brutal crime as Braddy again faces execution due to changes in Florida’s death penalty law. Braddy’s resentencing started Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court with jury selection.

Braddy’s motive, investigators say, was that he was spurned by Shandelle, who had repeatedly rejected his advances. Fearing Quatisha could identify him, Braddy dumped the child — alive — on the side of Alligator Alley, prosecutors say. Quatisha’s body was found in a canal days later by fishermen.

The girl had bite marks from alligators on her head and stomach, according to the Herald’s archives. Her left arm was severed.

During Braddy’s trial in 2007, a medical expert testified that Quatisha was still alive when alligators bit her. Braddy was convicted and sentenced to death at his trial nine years after the grisly crime.
Braddy could be spared from execution due to changes in Florida’s death penalty law.

In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death penalty sentencing system unconstitutional, as it called for a judge to determine whether a death penalty should be imposed, which violated the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.

Florida lawmakers, with the support of then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, rewrote the state law to allow only 10 of 12 jurors to recommend a death penalty. But the Florida Supreme Court in 2017 ruled the new law was unconstitutional, saying jury verdicts needed to be unanimous.

That was the catalyst that granted about 100 Florida death row inmates, including Braddy, the opportunity for a new sentencing. Braddy had been sentenced to death in 2007.

Braddy, however, may again be resentenced to death with a non-unanimous jury vote. In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law that allows juries to recommend a death sentence with an 8-4 vote instead of unanimously. The Supreme Court has yet to take up a constitutional challenge to the new non-unanimous verdict law.