2 files changed, 3 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index ffd8433..a0af8cd 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Fix a reference count leak in _sre.
+
 - Issue #19262: Initial check in of the 'asyncio' package (a.k.a. Tulip,
   a.k.a. PEP 3156).  There are no docs yet, and the PEP is slightly
   out of date with the code.  This module will have *provisional* status
diff --git a/Modules/_sre.c b/Modules/_sre.c
index 2b00121..0db4ebe 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre.c
+++ b/Modules/_sre.c
@@ -2427,6 +2427,7 @@ next:
         else
             item = PyUnicode_Join(joiner, list);
         Py_DECREF(joiner);
+        Py_DECREF(list);
         if (!item)
             return NULL;
     }