The man hanged because of a comma

Guardian readers discuss grammar, punctuation and linguistics. David Shariatmadari’s article “War of Words” (18 June) brings to mind that Sir Roger Casement, after his conviction and death sentence for treason, said “I am being hanged by a comma”, which was literally (in the traditional sense) true. His offence had been to try to persuade Irish first world war prisoners in Germany to join the Irish uprising. A critical issue was whether the Treason Act of 1351 appli