I've seen lots of excellent public defenders throughout my career. Some of the best are the true believers, the ones who go all-out despite overwhelming evidence and a confession. Even though we were at opposite tables, I respected them. If you and your PD disagree about legal theory, or work ethic you are always free to fire them and request another. And you are always free to defend yourself, though that rarely works out well.

No worries, I've also seen some genuinely abysmal PDs, usually because their client was too difficult and had unreasonable expectations. I had a robbery case a few years ago where the client hand-wrote his PD's closing. The PD and the judge had a discussion with jury out of the courtroom. The PD was obviously intimidated by his gang affiliated client. The judge had to tell him "as far as I know only one of you has a law degree; that person should be the one giving the closing argument." That client earned over a decade in a lovely state run B&B.