diff --git a/sentry_sdk/integrations/aws_lambda.py b/sentry_sdk/integrations/aws_lambda.py
index 831cde8999..c232094256 100644
--- a/sentry_sdk/integrations/aws_lambda.py
+++ b/sentry_sdk/integrations/aws_lambda.py
@@ -61,7 +61,10 @@ def sentry_init_error(*args, **kwargs):
 
             else:
                 # Fall back to AWS lambdas JSON representation of the error
-                sentry_event = _event_from_error_json(json.loads(args[1]))
+                error_info = args[1]
+                if isinstance(error_info, str):
+                    error_info = json.loads(error_info)
+                sentry_event = _event_from_error_json(error_info)
                 sentry_sdk.capture_event(sentry_event)
 
         return init_error(*args, **kwargs)
diff --git a/tests/integrations/aws_lambda/test_aws.py b/tests/integrations/aws_lambda/test_aws.py
index f60bedc846..8bbd33505b 100644
--- a/tests/integrations/aws_lambda/test_aws.py
+++ b/tests/integrations/aws_lambda/test_aws.py
@@ -316,9 +316,6 @@ def test_handler(event, context):
     }
 
 
-@pytest.mark.xfail(
-    reason="Amazon changed something (2024-10-01) and on Python 3.9+ our SDK can not capture events in the init phase of the Lambda function anymore. We need to fix this somehow."
-)
 def test_init_error(run_lambda_function, lambda_runtime):
     envelope_items, _ = run_lambda_function(
         LAMBDA_PRELUDE