diff --git a/core/state_processor.go b/core/state_processor.go
index 26f5f84fb9..8e9422a8e8 100644
--- a/core/state_processor.go
+++ b/core/state_processor.go
@@ -123,13 +123,13 @@ func (p *LightStateProcessor) Process(block *types.Block, statedb *state.StateDB
 			statedb.StopPrefetcher()
 			parent := p.bc.GetHeader(block.ParentHash(), block.NumberU64()-1)
 			statedb, err = state.New(parent.Root, p.bc.stateCache, p.bc.snaps)
+			if err != nil {
+				return statedb, nil, nil, 0, err
+			}
 			statedb.SetExpectedStateRoot(block.Root())
 			if p.bc.pipeCommit {
 				statedb.EnablePipeCommit()
 			}
-			if err != nil {
-				return statedb, nil, nil, 0, err
-			}
 			// Enable prefetching to pull in trie node paths while processing transactions
 			statedb.StartPrefetcher("chain")
 		}