>"Verner's law?". ... is
counter-intuitive
I understand your point, but a parallel phenomenon can be found in English
today with certain words such as exercise /'eks..../ and exert /e'gz.../
(Note that I am not pretending this is a rigid sound rule in modern English,
just that there are a few words which allow voicing before the accent, and a
few others which will not allow it after the accent.)
Peter