Gov. John Kitzhaber says his deci­sion on Tuesday to block the exe­cu­tion of Gary Haugen — or that of any Oregon inmate — while he is in office was based on his belief that the death penal­ty is moral­ly wrong and unjustly administered.

Kitzhaber is right on both counts. And he is right to exer­cise his author­i­ty under Article V, Section 14, of the Oregon Constitution to grant a tem­po­rary reprieve for Haugen — even though the twice-con­vict­ed mur­der­er had waived his legal appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court had cleared the way for his exe­cu­tion to proceed.

First and fore­most, Kitzhaber act­ed out of pro­found per­son­al con­vic­tion — some­thing all Oregonians, regard­less of where they stand on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, should respect.

The death penal­ty has been car­ried out just twice in the last 49 years in Oregon — both under Kitzhaber’s first term as gov­er­nor. In a state­ment, Kitzhaber described his deci­sions to allow the 1996 exe­cu­tion of Douglas Franklin Wright and the 1997 exe­cu­tion of Harry Charles Moore as the ​“most ago­niz­ing and dif­fi­cult” he has made as the state’s chief executive.

“I have revis­it­ed and ques­tioned them over and over again,” he wrote. ​“I do not believe that those exe­cu­tions made us safer, and cer­tain­ly they did not make us nobler as a society.

“And I sim­ply can­not par­tic­i­pate once again in some­thing I believe to be morally wrong.”

Kitzhaber left no doubt that he ful­ly grasped the hideous nature of Haugen’s crimes. Critics will note the irony of a gov­er­nor choos­ing life for a man who chose death for two oth­ers — the inmate whom Haugen killed four years ago and his girlfriend’s moth­er, mur­dered in 1981.

Under Oregon’s dys­func­tion­al death penal­ty sys­tem, the only two peo­ple who have been exe­cut­ed in recent years were those who, like Haugen, had vol­un­teered to die. As the gov­er­nor not­ed, ​“The death penal­ty as prac­ticed in Oregon is nei­ther fair nor just, and it is not swift or cer­tain.” It is, as Kitzhaber said, ​“a per­ver­sion of justice.”

Kitzhaber’s announce­ment came as the tide is turn­ing against the death penal­ty. Earlier this year, Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn abol­ished it in a state that since 1977 had wrong­ly con­demned at least 20 peo­ple to death. At least 16 states — and 133 coun­tries — now reject the death penalty.

Oregon should join their ranks. Kitzhaber, who favors replac­ing the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, said he will ask the Legislature to con­sid­er reforms in its 2013 session.

The gov­er­nor declined to com­mute Haugen’s sen­tence, say­ing that deci­sion belongs to Oregonians who should engage in a statewide debate over this most crit­i­cal of issues. That debate began with Kitzhaber’s announcement.

Despite the many mis­takes and injus­tices that have been uncov­ered in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty nation­wide, it may require a long and ardu­ous cam­paign to con­vince Oregonians that the death penal­ty is inde­fen­si­ble and should be abolished.

So be it. Let the great debate begin.

It’s time, as Kitzhaber said, to ​“find a bet­ter solu­tion” — one that reflects Oregon’s values.