diff --git a/common/sampling.cpp b/common/sampling.cpp
index bccec35dac..ebe61f32ca 100644
--- a/common/sampling.cpp
+++ b/common/sampling.cpp
@@ -309,15 +309,15 @@ struct common_sampler * common_sampler_init(const struct llama_model * model, co
 }
 
 struct llama_sampler * common_sampler_backend_init(const struct llama_model * model, const struct common_params_sampling & params) {
+    if (!params.backend_sampling) {
+        return nullptr;
+    }
     const llama_vocab * vocab = llama_model_get_vocab(model);
 
     llama_sampler_chain_params chain_params = llama_sampler_chain_default_params();
     chain_params.no_perf = params.no_perf;
 
     struct llama_sampler * chain = llama_sampler_chain_init(chain_params);
-    if (!params.backend_sampling) {
-        return chain; // return empty chain
-    }
 
     const bool enable_temp  = params.temp  > 0.0f && sampler_enabled(params, COMMON_SAMPLER_TYPE_TEMPERATURE);
     const bool enable_top_k = params.top_k > 0    && sampler_enabled(params, COMMON_SAMPLER_TYPE_TOP_K);