diff --git a/pupy/packages/all/pupyutils/safepopen.py b/pupy/packages/all/pupyutils/safepopen.py
index d0f32568..ea47238c 100644
--- a/pupy/packages/all/pupyutils/safepopen.py
+++ b/pupy/packages/all/pupyutils/safepopen.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ class SafePopen(object):
         self.returncode = None
 
     def execute(self, poll_delay=0.5):
+        returncode = None
         try:
             kwargs = self._popen_kwargs
             # Setup some required arguments