The headquarters of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender is located in the William Donald Schaefer Tower; Suite 1400, 6 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. Paul B. DeWolfe is the Public Defender. Historic legislation of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender On March 4, 1971, Maryland Senate President William James introduced Senate Bill 454 to the 1971 session of the Maryland General Assembly. Senate Bill 454 was: AN ACT to add a new Article 27A to the Annotated Code of Maryland (1971 Replacement Volume), to follow immediately after Article 27 thereof, and to be under a new title "Public Defender, "to provide for and authorize the creation of a Public Defender System for the State of Maryland so as to assure effective assistance and continuity of counsel and related services to indigent accused persons taken into custody and to indigent defendants in criminal, juvenile, appellate, post conviction and other proceedings instituted before the Courts of the State of Maryland; and relating generally to the public defender system and to its workings and operations and the duties of certain persons in relation thereto. On April 3, 1971, Senate Bill 454 received a 33–3 vote by the Maryland Senate, and on April 10, 1971, it received a 78–39 vote by the Maryland House of Delegates. On April 28, 1971, Governor Marvin Mandel approved Senate Bill 454. Subsequently, Section 3 of Article 27A took effect in the Annotated Code of Maryland on July 1, 1971, and the remainder of Article 27A went into effect on January 1, 1972. Section 3 of Article 27A Section 3 of Article 27A went into effect as the first stage of law concerning the Office of the Public Defender for Maryland. It decreed that the Office of the Public Defender is part of Maryland’s Executive Branch of government, and provided that a Public Defender shall be appointed head of the Office by the Board of Trustees. Furthermore, it stated that the public defender shall seek the approval of the board of trustees per the appointment of a deputy director, and likewise with the appointment of district public defenders for each of the twelve districts. Section 3 follows that the Public Defender shall seek the advice of district public defenders in the course of appointing assistant public defenders for a respective district. Pursuant Section 3 of Article 27, to be qualified as Public Defender, a person