'How Can You Defend Those People?'

— -- In exclusive excerpts of his upcoming book "How Can You Defend These People?" Connecticut criminal defense attorney Mickey Sherman tackles the questions so many Americans have for defense attorneys who handle high-profile cases:

How Can You Defend Someone When You Know That They're Guilty?

Aren't You Afraid To Deal With 'Those People?'

Are There Cases Or Clients You Won't Take?

In these excerpts, Sherman takes a sometimes light-hearted, ultimately revealing look behind the scenes of a criminal case before it gets into the headlines.

For the last question, Sherman contacted some of the nation's top defense attorneys, including Gerald Shargel, Ben Brafman, David Chesnoff and Dick DeGuerin, to ask them. Their answers may surprise you.

Sherman has years of experience in the media spotlight, and has led the defense of some of the most notorious criminal cases in recent memory, not always successfully.

His former clients include infamous Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who was convicted of the 1975 murder of Greenwich, CT teen Martha Moxley; so-called "Preppy rapist" Alex Kelly, who was charged with committing two rapes in Connecticut in 1986. Kelly fled the country in 1987. He later surrendered to authorities in Switzerland in 1995. He was extradited to the U.S. and served 10 years in prison for one of the rapes. He was paroled last fall. Sherman used the post-traumatic stress disorder defense in his successful defense of a Vietnam veteran who was charged with murder. The case became the subject of BBC series, "America on Trial."

Through decades of practicing laws, Sherman has been on both sides of challenging cases. A former Greenwich, Connecticut assistant district attorney and former assistant public defender in Stamford, Sherman was a founding member of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Attorneys Association.