And five hours later, she was up, dressed and attending a Michigan Parole Board hearing in Plymouth on the future of JeDonna Young, 44, a so-called "drug-lifer law" victim who's been in the slammer for the last 20 years.



Fannon, a tough, persistent, sometimes in-your-face 48-year-old, didn't testify ...not this time. But she was there, lending support to Young, to Young's mother and to the many others who, like herself, have been crusading for changes in the outrageously harsh drug law for over a decade.

Why such dedication?

Simple answer: Her son, 30-year-old Gary Fannon (who did testify for Young on Thursday) spent nearly 10 years in the slammer under Michigan's drug-lifer law before getting out on an entrapment appeal in 1996.

Until this year, the law that nailed Young and Gary Fannon -- both first-time offenders -- mandated life without parole or, if you prefer, death in prison for anyone convicted of delivering or conspiring to deliver more than 650 grams of cocaine or heroin. That penalty was harsher than those for rape, some murders, etc.

Meantime, Linda Fannon has spoken out or testified against the law more times than she can count over the years, pestered political pooh-bahs, sought out columnists (including the Free Press's now-retired Jim Fitzgerald, who wrote regular "free Gary Fannon" appeals), appeared, despite what she says is awesome stage fright, on syndicated TV shows, even once called up Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone, which had run sympathetic stories about Gary, and asked for money so she could make sure everything was set for Gary's entrapment hearing (Wenner sent her $2,500). And, of course, she regularly urged (and sometimes harangued) state legislators to fix the law.

And, after years of foot-dragging -- and under constant pressure from Laura Sager and her husband, Tom Burkert, of Michigan Families Against Mandatory Minimums -- they did. It was a modest fix, allowing parole for lifer law inmates who'd served between 15 and 20 years under certain conditions.

That's what JeDonna Young's hearing was about on Thursday.

A day later, the board said Young would be the first person released under the amended law.

Fannon was both delighted and saddened by the outcome -- delighted because Young is getting out, saddened because, she says, "It's difficult to be around people who still have relatives in prison; it brings back so much of your own pain."

That, of course, was a reference to her long crusade to free Gary, a battle, as it turned out, that she won.

Linda grew up in Redford Township, one of 14 kids in an outspoken family ("None of us are meek and mild, that's for sure," she says). She married at 17, had Gary and another son, divorced at age 24 and has never remarried.

Her crusade began in 1987 when Gary was first arrested. And, though Gary is out now and the law has been amended ...well, there are other mandatory minimums that need fixing and other deserving inmates who need support.

"At this point and beyond, I will not miss anything that helps this situation," says Fannon. "It's really, really important."

Or, as Fitzgerald has written: "Everybody should have a mother like Linda Fannon."

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