java.lang.VerifyError with Java 7 and Cobertura

I just added Cobertura to a Java 7 project and was disappointed that my unit tests started failing with:

 java.lang.VerifyError: Expecting a stackmap frame at branch target blah...  

Looks like cobertura's byte code instrumentation is not compatible with Java 7.  Java 7 changed the class format with the addition of a stack map used for verification and cobertura hasn't caught up yet - if ever.

Oracle does provide a way around the problem by using the -XX:UseSplitVerifier VM option.  I added it as an argument to the surefire-plugin configuration in my maven pom file.

 <plugin>  
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>  
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>  
    <version>${surefire.plugin.version}</version>  
    <configuration>  
      <argLine>-XX:-UseSplitVerifier</argLine>  
    </configuration>    
 </plugin>