The comparison I intended was about currying pity in court. Name any convicted murderer in UK (mass- or not) and imagine such a scenario having any effect on the judge.
I have actually sat in on several Crown Court cases (not murders obviously) and have witnessed defendants trying to look woebegone while their 'awful life and unlucky circumstances' were paraded before the jury. It didn't seem to make a lot of difference. I certainly saw no vomiting in buckets... I reckon the presiding judge would merely have sent the chap out to compose himself and have him brought back to continue as before.