diff --git a/buildspecs/release-to-github.yml b/buildspecs/release-to-github.yml
index 955c4760da44..332bc1298fbe 100644
--- a/buildspecs/release-to-github.yml
+++ b/buildspecs/release-to-github.yml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ phases:
     -
     - git remote add --fetch public $PUBLIC_REPOSITORY_URL
     - |
-      if git show-ref --tags $RELEASE_VERSION --quiet; then
+      if [ `git ls-remote --tags public  | grep refs/tags/$RELEASE_VERSION | wc -l` -ge "1" ]; then
         git push -d public :refs/tags/$RELEASE_VERSION
       fi
     - git tag -a $RELEASE_VERSION -m "AWS SDK for Java v2 ($RELEASE_VERSION)"