(Lat. paricida) is rather a popular than a legal term. In the Roman law it comprehended every one who murdered a near relative; but in English the term is usually confined to the murderer of one's father or of one who is in loco parentis. The parricidex does not, in any respect, differ in British and American law from the murderer of a stranger; in both cases the punishment is death by hanging. In the Roman law a parricide was punished in a much more severe manner, being sewed up in a leather sack, along with a live cock, a viper, a dog, and an ape, and cast into the sea to take his fate with those companions.