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.
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 the first day of the 2008 Regular Session of the Maryland General Assembly (January 9, 2008 to April 7, 2008), Senate Bill 37 was introduced and subsequently on April 8, 2008, Article 27A (sections 1-14) was repealed in entirety[3] and underwent a code revision as “Chapter 15, Acts of 2008, Criminal Procedure Article, Title 16.
Office of the Public Defender”, which is codified in the most current version (red books) of the Maryland Annotated Code.
The purpose of Senate Bill 97, which was introduced in the 2010 Maryland General Assembly Session (January 13, 2010 – April 12, 2010), was to implement substantive changes to Chapter 15, Acts of 2008, Criminal Procedure Article, Title 16 (2008 code revision).
[5] Pursuant Title 16-207 Duties and Powers of Public Defender, the general duties of the Public Defender are to The general powers of the Public Defender are to (1) adopt regulations to carry out the purpose of Title 16; (2) make necessary arrangements to coordinate services of the Office with any federal program to provide an attorney to indigent individuals; (3) arrange for the Office to receive money or services available to assist in the duties under Title 16; and (4) accept the services of volunteer workers or consultants at no compensation for their necessary expenses or otherwise.
[6] The OPD renders legal services to eligible indigent individuals charged with violating State, county, and/or municipal laws involving possible incarceration.
-- For an individual whose assets and net annual income are less than 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, eligibility for services of the Office may be determined without an assessment regarding the need of the applicant.
[12] The lawyers within The Aggravated Homicide Division represent OPD clients, on a statewide level, facing capital prosecution.
The Aggravated Homicide Division also provides training to assistant public defenders in the following areas: “complex homicide litigation, including pretrial motions practice, identification of mental health and sentencing issues, and trial preparation” [13] The Forensics Division of the OPD trains and provides technical and litigation support to OPD attorneys in order to: Lawyers within the OPD Mental Health Division represent individuals who have been “involuntarily confined to public or private mental health facilities”.