diff --git a/Lib/sre_parse.py b/Lib/sre_parse.py
index ab37fd3..6aa49c3 100644
--- a/Lib/sre_parse.py
+++ b/Lib/sre_parse.py
@@ -947,7 +947,9 @@
                     this = chr(ESCAPES[this][1])
                 except KeyError:
                     if c in ASCIILETTERS:
-                        raise s.error('bad escape %s' % this, len(this))
+                        import warnings
+                        warnings.warn('bad escape %s' % this,
+                                      DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=4)
                 lappend(this)
         else:
             lappend(this)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_re.py b/Lib/test/test_re.py
index 84131d2..4bdaa4b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_re.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_re.py
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@
                          (chr(9)+chr(10)+chr(11)+chr(13)+chr(12)+chr(7)+chr(8)))
         for c in 'cdehijklmopqsuwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ':
             with self.subTest(c):
-                with self.assertRaises(re.error):
+                with self.assertWarns(DeprecationWarning):
                     self.assertEqual(re.sub('a', '\\' + c, 'a'), '\\' + c)
 
         self.assertEqual(re.sub(r'^\s*', 'X', 'test'), 'Xtest')