diff --git a/Modules/_elementtree.c b/Modules/_elementtree.c
index eaa9e873d22..3537f19b1c7 100644
--- a/Modules/_elementtree.c
+++ b/Modules/_elementtree.c
@@ -3990,6 +3990,11 @@ PyInit__elementtree(void)
     st->deepcopy_obj = PyObject_GetAttrString(temp, "deepcopy");
     Py_XDECREF(temp);
 
+    if (st->deepcopy_obj == NULL) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
+    assert(!PyErr_Occurred());
     if (!(st->elementpath_obj = PyImport_ImportModule("xml.etree.ElementPath")))
         return NULL;