diff --git a/src/c_api/c_api_executor.cc b/src/c_api/c_api_executor.cc
index 1f936b164326..4e1eef541029 100644
--- a/src/c_api/c_api_executor.cc
+++ b/src/c_api/c_api_executor.cc
@@ -560,6 +560,7 @@ int MXExecutorReshape(int partial_shaping,
                       ExecutorHandle *out) {
   MXAPIThreadLocalEntry *ret = MXAPIThreadLocalStore::Get();
   API_BEGIN();
+  *out = nullptr; // ensure we can know whether to free executor on early abort
   // create shape map for in_args and aux_states
   std::unordered_map<std::string, TShape> kwargs(num_provided_arg_shapes);
   for (mx_uint i = 0; i < num_provided_arg_shapes; ++i) {
@@ -623,7 +624,7 @@ int MXExecutorReshape(int partial_shaping,
     *aux_states = &(ret->ret_handles[nd_idx]);
     nd_idx = ret->ret_handles.size();
   }
-  API_END_HANDLE_ERROR(delete out);
+  API_END_HANDLE_ERROR(if (*out != nullptr) delete *out);
 }
 
 int MXExecutorGetOptimizedSymbol(ExecutorHandle handle,