From our local newspaper today:
One-armed man guilty of hitchhiker's murder

This story is also kind of like a urban myth that mothers tell their children - but I guess it really can and does happen.

I'm sorry, but I read through the beginning a few times, and I guess I'm just not seeing something or don't unerstand.

What is "The Crown"?

edit: Ah, I see it's New Zealand. someone want to explain a little NZ law to me?

What is "The Crown"?

I think in that context it means the government, in much the same way as we say "the state" in the US in criminal trials.

someone want to explain a little NZ law to me?

No different than here, I would imagine.

When you and I go into a courtroom over a dispute, I charge you with something. But when the cops bust you for breaking a community law, then The State charges you with something. Just imagine that except substitute "crown" for "state".

"The Crown" means the 'government' of New Zealand.

Not in terms of Politicians/Parliament [the place where politicians hang out and carry on like they do], but in terms of things like law and order.

So, you might say the "public prosecutor (or defender?)" (or is it DA?), or is it "The people"? I can't be sure- too many US cop shows - I'm confused which is which.

New Zealand has a Westminster, Parliamentary style democracy, with the Queen of England [yep, good old Elizabeth the Second] as the nominal "head of state" [this arrangement dates back to the 1700 and 1800's when the country was colonised by England].

We have a (government of the day appointed (- for 5 years at a time) - with the Queens ok) Head of state called "The Governor General" who is the Head of State of the country (instead of the Queen), when the Queen is not actually in New Zealand [and The Queen is away a lot I've noticed too - I won't be voting for her anytime soon - too much absenteeism for my liking :-)) ]

Although the Queen of England/Governor General always defers any running of the country management stuff to the elected government of the day.
The Queen/Governor General can in theory "dissolve parliament" [If only getting rid of politicians was THAT easy] - which causes fresh elections to occur.

Thats never happened here, but did happen in Australia once in the early 1970s, and some say Australia has never been the same since because of it.

So, this connection with Royalty (i.e. a Crown) gives the "law and order" part of the government the name "The Crown".

So, when cases are tried in the courts for crimes like murder etc, its always "The Crown" who brings the case to the court, and who is responsible for administering justice to the offender once they are found guilty [like sticking them in jail] - we don't have a Death Sentence anymore since about 1957 or so.

We have had the occasional "private prosecution" for things like murder - but mostly its "The Crown" that brings the case to court.
[Bit like what OJ's ex-wife's familiy did to OJ - they bought a private prosecution for her murder].

I think the same applies in the UK - the law and order is represented in courts/in a legal sense by "The Crown".

Australia has a similar, but different enough legal system. I think they have a "Crown" in a legal sense and symbolic too, but Australia is a Federation of independent states (like the US of A is), so things get messy as you have "state" laws/and governments and "Federal" laws and governments.

Hope that makes things clear[er].

You pretty much got it in one.
The only difference is that we have no "state law".
There is a common body of law, this law is "Created" up by the central government [i.e. Parliament/politicians].

These laws cover most of the stuff you can get taken to court for like anywhere else in the world:

like killing people, not paying taxes, stealing other folks property, not having a drivers license [and driving on the road], getting married more than once without a divorce in the meantime etc etc - all the laws we live buy.

A few terms are used in that report which may need explaining:

"parole" = Early Release from prison [generally for being a good prisoner, but sometimes because the prisons are full and they don't want to keep you in prison for much longer anyway, or maybe as the holidays are coming up and they want to let you out early to save the hassle of kicking you out on say Christmas day, when everything is shut etc]. If you're on parole and you break the law again (seriously enough), you can be put back in prison - and/or have that time added to your next prison sentence - if there is one.

"non-parole period" = the minimum time in prison you have to serve no matter how good a prisoner you are. If you don't have a minimum non-parole period then you can serve as little as 1/3rd of your prison sentence - if you're really really, nice.
And since we don't have a death penalty, you can't get only 1/3rd killed for being a model prisoner!

In the US you'd say "10 to 20", meaning, 10 years minimum, 20 years max.

Here you'd say 20 years, with 10 "non parole". meaning, you may get out in 10 years, if you're good, but not before.
If you don't have a "non parole" period in your sentence, then you could be out again in 7 and a bit years.

"Diocesan schoolgirl" means the victim attended the local single sex school for "rich parents girls" (boringly its actually called, "The Diocesan School for Girls" - think exclusive Catholic school/college for girls between the ages of about 13, up to the age of about 18 and you're not far wrong.

"Invercargill" is the most southern city in New Zealand - This victim was off to hitchhike over 1,000 miles to the south, by herself, and was murdered less than 20 miles from where she started out from.


BTW: the photo attached to the story makes the One Armed Man look like a three armed man. You can see the arms/hands of the person directly behind him in the photo, but not the person behind him.
Its a odd photo to use, when the caption/story is about a One Armed man!

The "Crown" is a term used here in Canada too (suprise, suprise) ...Usually in the context where someone is being charged for a crime under Federal law. I heard the term many times while investigating/attending military courts martial proceedings....