Also, I have no idea what quality of gear you're using. You can spec any way you like, but if you don't have the gear to support the role you're trying to pull off, no talent spec will save you. There's other factors too - your group. Even the best tank will fall in the face of imminent danger without a good healer behind him, and at least decent DPS'ers beside him.
20/41/0 vs 0/49/12 for tanking is, as I said, just trading 5% parry and some threat for the ability to heal decently. I venture to say that it was either your gear or your group that caused you to die, because I fail to see how 5% parry is going to be the make-or-break factor in a heroic.
A point of reference - I've tanked heroic Shattered Halls several times in my current spec with varying degrees of gear. You don't want to tank 7-8 at once, even if you can hold aggro. You want to CC several and tank the rest, and try to take the strain off the healer. To do heroic Shattered Halls without CC, you need raid tanking gear and an excellent healer, along with some competent DPS.
_________________
Stats below usually unbuffed w/o Devo Aura
1617 heal, 118 mp5, & 14.24% crit heal set