and the difference between the two

murderer is killing someone with

malice aforethought this is fancy lawyer

talk for killing someone with a

particular intent there are several ways

you can kill someone that the law

considers sufficient to show malice aforethought

first it's murder if you

planned to kill someone or cause

serious bodily harm and then you go

ahead and kill them

well duh. the state has to prove that you

plan to kill or seriously hurt someone

one way that's easier is if you

used a deadly weapon

the idea is that while it's possible

that you plan to kill someone even if

you didn't use a deadly weapon

it's more likely you were planning to kill

or cause serious harm if you did use it

that doesn't mean using a deadly weapon

is proof but it makes it a lot easier

for the prosecutor to prove their case

another kind of murder is where someone

kills another person without planning it

but acts extremely recklessly

not just regular recklessness mind you but such

extreme recklessness that it shows the

court what it calls a depraved heart

instead of planning to kill someone you

can commit murder where the killing

occurs while you're committing a felony

like robbery, burglary, rape, and so on

a felony murder doesn't require the killer

to have planned to kill someone so if you're

committing a felony and you recklessly

kill someone that's murder even though

it wouldn't be murder if you weren't

committing the felony the moral here is

don't commit felonies even the

cool ones like badger launching

that's murder manslaughter is basically

any other kind of criminal killing there

are different grades depending on the

circumstances and the laws in that area

but that's the difference between

manslaughter and murder in a nutshell

and there you have it