diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index e5d77af..563f0c0 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #28426: Fixed potential crash in PyUnicode_AsDecodedObject() in debug
+  build.
+
 - Issue #28517: Fixed of-by-one error in the peephole optimizer that caused
   keeping unreachable code.
 
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 80e6cf2..4c95111 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -3236,24 +3236,16 @@
                           const char *encoding,
                           const char *errors)
 {
-    PyObject *v;
-
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(unicode)) {
         PyErr_BadArgument();
-        goto onError;
+        return NULL;
     }
 
     if (encoding == NULL)
         encoding = PyUnicode_GetDefaultEncoding();
 
     /* Decode via the codec registry */
-    v = PyCodec_Decode(unicode, encoding, errors);
-    if (v == NULL)
-        goto onError;
-    return unicode_result(v);
-
-  onError:
-    return NULL;
+    return PyCodec_Decode(unicode, encoding, errors);
 }
 
 PyObject *