Consider code like this:
---
int i = "".
@Deprecated void t() {}
---

The AST for this will not include any sensible initializer, the initializer will be an erroneous node with no subnodes, and "@Deprecated" will be subsumed by the initializer as well. The errors are:
---
/tmp/E.java:2: error: <identifier> expected
int i = "".
           ^
/tmp/E.java:3: error: illegal start of expression
@Deprecated void t() {}
^
/tmp/E.java:3: error: ';' expected
@Deprecated void t() {}
           ^
3 errors
----

There is a relation to JDK-8253584.