If you re-read my comment carefully, you will see that I already mentioned that possibility: "unless you are already in preventive detention due to flight risk

If you re-read my comment carefully, you will see that I already mentioned that possibility: "unless you are already in preventive detention due to flight risk or danger." However, if you are not in jail, as was the case with Sarkozy, you cannot be sent to prison in the U.S. after receiving a sentence from a lower court while the case is still open and pending in higher courts on appeal. In France, however, there is a special law, although rarely used, that allows a sentence to be enforced even if the judgment is not yet final.