"I could never live with myself if I went along with the rest of the jury," Chiakulas told the Chicago Tribune. "I didn't believe it was the correct vote for me."

Chiakulas said the conflict while deliberating gave her stomach pain that kept her awake at night. But she was unprepared for the frenzied speculation about her after a mistrial was declared, and one fellow juror said Chiakulas was “thrown under the bus.”

It was something that I took seriously and didn't ask for," she said. "And then to be treated the way I've been treated, it makes me wonder about being a juror and the system itself."

Blagojevich publicly thanked Chiakulas for her resolve, but she said, “I didn't do it for him."