Supreme Court Justice John Byrne began his summary of the long-running trial on Wednesday.
He told the jury that to find Baden-Clay guilty of murder they must be satisfied of two things: that he caused his wife's death and that he intended to at least cause her grievous harm.
"Were you to find the accused not guilty of murder, you will then consider him not guilty or guilty of manslaughter," he told them.
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a person without intent, the judge said.
In Queensland, both murder and manslaughter carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
If found guilty of murder Baden-Clay faces at least 15 years' in jail without parole, while there is no fixed minimum non-parole period for manslaughter.
Baden-Clay has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Allison in April 2012.
Her body was found on a creek bank at Anstead in Brisbane's west on April 30, 2012, ten days after her husband reported her missing from their home in nearby Brookfield.
Prosecutors say the former real estate agent probably smothered his wife at their home and dumped her body where it was found.
Baden-Clay's defence team says the 43-year-old could have taken her own life or died accidentally after wandering off at night.
Justice Byrne warned jurors against reading too much into statements Baden-Clay gave police, which prosecutors say are lies.
"You will make up your own minds whether he made false statements to police and if so, if he did so deliberately," Mr Byrne said.
He warned jurors to not base their conclusions on suggested lies, and said he would return to the issue later in his remarks.
Justice Byrne will continue his summation on Wednesday before the jury retires to consider its verdict later in the day.
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