diff --git a/src/uucore/src/lib/mods/error.rs b/src/uucore/src/lib/mods/error.rs
index e564c7bb5..f0f62569d 100644
--- a/src/uucore/src/lib/mods/error.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/src/lib/mods/error.rs
@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ impl Display for UIoError {
     fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result<(), std::fmt::Error> {
         use std::io::ErrorKind::*;
 
-        let mut message;
+        let message;
         let message = if self.inner.raw_os_error().is_some() {
             // These are errors that come directly from the OS.
             // We want to normalize their messages across systems,
@@ -424,7 +424,6 @@ impl Display for UIoError {
                     // (https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/86442)
                     // are stabilized, we should add them to the match statement.
                     message = strip_errno(&self.inner);
-                    capitalize(&mut message);
                     &message
                 }
             }
@@ -435,7 +434,6 @@ impl Display for UIoError {
             // a file that was not found.
             // There are also errors with entirely custom messages.
             message = self.inner.to_string();
-            capitalize(&mut message);
             &message
         };
         if let Some(ctx) = &self.context {
@@ -446,13 +444,6 @@ impl Display for UIoError {
     }
 }
 
-/// Capitalize the first character of an ASCII string.
-fn capitalize(text: &mut str) {
-    if let Some(first) = text.get_mut(..1) {
-        first.make_ascii_uppercase();
-    }
-}
-
 /// Strip the trailing " (os error XX)" from io error strings.
 pub fn strip_errno(err: &std::io::Error) -> String {
     let mut msg = err.to_string();
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs b/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
index fa5845eac..5289489ea 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
@@ -2724,7 +2724,7 @@ fn test_copy_dir_preserve_permissions_inaccessible_file() {
     ucmd.args(&["-p", "-R", "d1", "d2"])
         .fails()
         .code_is(1)
-        .stderr_only("cp: cannot open 'd1/f' for reading: Permission denied\n");
+        .stderr_only("cp: cannot open 'd1/f' for reading: permission denied\n");
     assert!(at.dir_exists("d2"));
     assert!(!at.file_exists("d2/f"));