AUSTIN (October 14, 2009)—Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up a friendly crowd of real estate agents Wednesday at a luncheon that sounded and felt like a campaign rally.

Perry, without mentioning Republican primary opponent Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, railed against federal spending and lack of federal border protection.

He told the luncheon crowd of the Texas Association of Realtors that Texas needs a leader with executive experience.

Talking with reporters later, Perry returned to the now-disputed 2004 Texas execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters.

Perry said numerous courts found Willingham guilty and appealed to reporters not to be misled by what he called anti-death penalty "propaganda."

“Willingham was a monster,” Perry said.

“This was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids.

“Person after person has stood and testified to facts of this case."

However, an expert's report concludes that the investigation that found accelerants were used to set the fire that killed the three girls is based on faulty science.

Arson was the cornerstone of the Willingham prosecution, but the report suggests the fire was not set deliberately and that what investigators deemed evidence of the use of accelerants was in fact the result of flashover, which is the near-simultaneous ignition of all combustible materials.