diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index b2f081c8356..8c7acaf6482 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #27774: Fix possible Py_DECREF on unowned object in _sre.
+
 - Issue #27760: Fix possible integer overflow in binascii.b2a_qp.
 
 - Issue #27758: Fix possible integer overflow in the _csv module for large record
diff --git a/Modules/_sre.c b/Modules/_sre.c
index b1258eefc49..7b941ffdbc9 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre.c
+++ b/Modules/_sre.c
@@ -3401,10 +3401,8 @@ match_groupdict(MatchObject* self, PyObject* args, PyObject* kw)
         if (!key)
             goto failed;
         value = match_getslice(self, key, def);
-        if (!value) {
-            Py_DECREF(key);
+        if (!value)
             goto failed;
-        }
         status = PyDict_SetItem(result, key, value);
         Py_DECREF(value);
         if (status < 0)