diff --git a/Objects/exceptions.c b/Objects/exceptions.c
index 59c63f4aa44958..a8d4e3a696ce8e 100644
--- a/Objects/exceptions.c
+++ b/Objects/exceptions.c
@@ -2324,7 +2324,9 @@ AttributeError_reduce(PyAttributeErrorObject *self, PyObject *Py_UNUSED(ignored)
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    return PyTuple_Pack(3, Py_TYPE(self), self->args, state);
+    PyObject *return_value = PyTuple_Pack(3, Py_TYPE(self), self->args, state);
+    Py_DECREF(state);
+    return return_value;
 }
 
 static PyMemberDef AttributeError_members[] = {