SALEM, Ore. – A condemned inmate who was scheduled to be executed next month is slamming Gov. John Kitzhaber for giving him a reprieve, saying the governor didn’t have the guts to carry out the execution.

Two-time murderer Gary Haugen had voluntarily given up his legal challenges, saying he wants to be executed in protest of a criminal justice system he views as broken. But Kitzhaber on Tuesday said he won’t allow anyone to be executed while he is in office, calling Oregon’s death penalty scheme “compromised and inequitable.”

But in a telephone interview with the Statesman Journal on Friday, Haugen mocked Kitzhaber. “I feel he’s a paper cowboy,” he said. “He couldn’t pull the trigger.”

Haugen’s criticism reverses his earlier praise of Kitzhaber’s decision during an interview with The Oregonian. He told the Portland newspaper that Kitzhaber cited some of the same criticism of the death penalty that Haugen has raised.

But after further reflection, Haugen said he came to the conclusion that the governor “basically pulled a coward’s move” by acting on his personal beliefs instead of carrying out the will of Oregon voters, who reinstated the death penalty in 1984.

Haugen said he learned of the reprieve when he was summoned from an outdoor exercise break at the state penitentiary and allowed to read the governor’s statement.

Kitzhaber called Oregon’s death penalty system “a perversion of justice,” saying the state only executes people who volunteer. Since capital punishment was legalized 27 years ago, only two people have been executed. Both of them, like Haugen, waived their legal challenges.