diff --git a/e-Knife/src/main/java/eknife/EKnife.java b/e-Knife/src/main/java/eknife/EKnife.java
index 4f3df1a8b655d96a8e8b5218442c865452629627..bf78edaac729dd5a06d301a35a9d9d8eedac4500 100644
--- a/e-Knife/src/main/java/eknife/EKnife.java
+++ b/e-Knife/src/main/java/eknife/EKnife.java
@@ -191,8 +191,9 @@ public class EKnife {
 		final EDG edg = new EDGFactory(last).createEDG();
 
 		final SlicingCriterion slicingCriterion = new SlicingCriterion(a.file, a.line, a.name, a.occurrence);
+		final Node SC;
 		try {
-			final Node SC = edg.getNode(slicingCriterion);
+			SC = edg.getNode(slicingCriterion);
 			if (SC == null) {
 				System.out.println("Error: the slicing criterion could not be found! " + slicingCriterion);
 				System.exit(1);