Consider the javadoc to the String class:

    * Because String objects are immutable they can be shared. For example:
    * <p><blockquote><pre>
    * String str = "abc";
    * </pre></blockquote><p>
    * is equivalent to:

The javadoc tool removes leading spaces and an asterisk.
generates the following HTML:

 Because String objects are immutable they can be shared. For example:
 <p><blockquote><pre>
     String str = "abc";
 </pre></blockquote><p>
 is equivalent to:

There is a leading space before the </pre> tag. It means that this line (with one invisible character) will be rendered.
And resulting HTML will have a doubled empty space between paragraphs:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html

The reason of is the location of the </pre> tag.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#h-9.3.4

The following code is rendered OK:
<pre>one line</pre>

The following code is rendered OK:
<pre>
 first line
 second line
</pre>

The following code renders additional line:
 <pre>
 first line
 second line
 </pre>

I think we should fix the javadoc tool and remove a space after an asterisk too.
As a bonus we make html-files smaller.