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[scot47]

Thanks to Moscow Centre for reminding me of the "Casement comma"

At Casement's highly publicised trial for treason, the prosecution had trouble arguing its case. Casement's crimes had been carried out in Germany and the medieval Treason Act 1351 seemed to apply only to activities carried out on English (or, arguably, British) soil. A close reading of the medieval Act allowed for a broader interpretation: the court decided that a comma should be read in the unpunctuated original Anglo-French text, crucially widening the sense so that "in the realm or elsewhere" referred to where acts were done and not just to where the "King's enemies" may be. This led to the claim that Casement was "hanged on a comma"



(I lifted that without permission from Wikipedia.)

[Sashadroogie]

Lynne Truss, that well-known and respected social commentator, characterizes this shameful episode in sham British justice as 'trying to get off on a comma'.

Serious business, this punctuation.

[esl_prof]