system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How was OJ Simpson acquitted in the murder trial but then found guilty in a civil court?

I believe he was found guilty on a 'wrongful death' charge in a civil court, but what exactly is a wrongful death and why did that happen when he was already acquitted in a criminal court?
gpt
A wrongful death means OJ's actions damaged another party and they could collect compensation.  

The difference is because there are two standards of proof required for different courts:

* In criminal court, society believes the government has a number of advantages, and they can literally kill you or take years of your life away, so the standard of proof required before they take any action is very high, "beyond a reasonable doubt", which means the accused should be found not guilty if there's any opportunity for some different scenario to have happened or doubt in the evidence put forward by the state/prosecution.  

* For civil court because they will only take what's necessary to make things as close to fair as they can, the standard of evidence is much lower, in simple terms a majority of the evidence.  So if one side has slightly more evidence that someone was negligent (even if their negligence doesn't constitute a crime or there's not nearly enough evidence to remove all doubt) one can still be found responsible for the event occurring and be liable for damages that happened as a result.