diff -r ece75a3b942c -r dcf0fdad8f68 Python/peephole.c
--- a/Python/peephole.c	Wed Dec 05 17:59:29 2012 +0200
+++ b/Python/peephole.c	Wed Dec 05 22:30:28 2012 +0100
@@ -418,13 +418,20 @@
     codestr = (unsigned char *)memcpy(codestr,
                                       PyBytes_AS_STRING(code), codelen);
 
-    /* Verify that RETURN_VALUE terminates the codestring.      This allows
-       the various transformation patterns to look ahead several
-       instructions without additional checks to make sure they are not
-       looking beyond the end of the code string.
+    /* Verify that RETURN_VALUE terminates the codestring. If not, strip
+       strip unreachable code out. This allows the various transformation
+       patterns to look ahead several instructions without additional checks
+       to make sure they are not looking beyond the end of the code string.
     */
-    if (codestr[codelen-1] != RETURN_VALUE)
-        goto exitUnchanged;
+    if (codestr[codelen-1] != RETURN_VALUE){
+        for (i=codelen-1; i>=0; i--){
+            if (codestr[i] == RETURN_VALUE)
+                break;
+        }
+        if (i == 0)
+            goto exitUnchanged;
+        codelen = i+1;
+    }
 
     /* Mapping to new jump targets after NOPs are removed */
     addrmap = (int *)PyMem_Malloc(codelen * sizeof(int));