That CAN return true with some tricky threading and some luck.

Dang. Fair enough

When replying, I momentarily wonderd if the compiler would compile it out, and then remembered:
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| void blah() throws Exception { throw new Exception(); String a = "poor little me"; } |
...does not compile, but:
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| void blah() throws Exception { if( true ) throw new Exception(); String a = "poor little me"; } |
does. And so does:
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| void blah() throws Exception { if( 1 == 1 ) throw new Exception(); String a = "poor little me"; } |
...so, hotspot might compile it out, but it's far from assured

.