In one of his last official acts as Maine’s governor Wednesday, John Baldacci signed the pardon of a Portland man convicted of manslaughter in his sister’s death. It was an effort to prevent him from being deported to a country he doesn’t remember and where he doesn’t speak the language.

A week earlier, Baldacci signed the pardon of a 35-year-old man who could be deported to Great Britain where he was born.

Both men came to the United States when they were young children and both have served the full sentences for their respective crimes.

Touch Rin Svay Ray, 31, was born in a refugee camp on the border of Cambodia and Thailand, his parents having been persecuted. He immigrated to this country when he was 5 years old with his mother and younger sister, Sary.

Svay graduated from Portland High School, then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Three years later, while home on leave, he was at a party with Sary and her boyfriend.

He drove them back from the party, passing other vehicles at high rates of speed on a road in Raymond. He lost control of his vehicle, which went off the road, flipped over several times and struck a telephone pole. Sary was thrown from the vehicle and died. She was 19 years old and the mother of two children.

Svay’s blood-alcohol content was 0.14 percent more than an hour after the crash. The legal threshold for driving is 0.08 percent. He was charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault and aggravated drunken driving. While out on bail, he was charged with criminal trespass and burglary. He was found guilty of criminal trespass and pleaded guilty to the three crash-related charges.

Svay’s lawyer argued for three consecutive sentences of one day less than a year, explaining to the judge that any sentence of a year or more could put Svay in jeopardy of deportation.

The judge sentenced Svay to six years in prison with all but a year and a half suspended, plus six years of probation. The judge said he was sympathetic to the deportation argument made by Svay’s lawyer, but the judge couldn’t consider that factor in imposing his sentence under Maine law.

The judge said that removal of Svay from the United States would be a “horrible and unjust result,” according to Baldacci’s office.

Baldacci acknowledged Svay’s crime, saying he “committed a terrible crime, one that took the life of his sister.” But, Baldacci said, “he has, over the last five years, demonstrated a commitment to atone for this error. He has complied with the terms of his sentence and has turned his life around. But, in my mind, he continues to have an obligation to his sister’s two children … to be involved in their lives and to explain to them his actions.”

Svay agreed to speak publicly about his drunken driving as an educational component.

“Perhaps his message will save another family from the unimaginable horror of losing a wife, sister and mother at the hands of a drunken driver,” Baldacci said.

Paul Blakesley, whose mother was British and whose stepfather was American, was severely abused by his mother, who admitted hitting, slapping and choking her son. Although she eventually became a U.S. citizen, she never sought citizenship for her son.

At age 18, Blakesley broke into a camp and stole a jar of coins. He was convicted of burglary and theft by unauthorized taking or transfer. Those were followed by convictions for three drug offenses stemming from two instances of cultivating marijuana plants and one of having four baggies of marijuana in his apartment.

He also had a conviction of criminal mischief on his record.

Blakesley pleaded guilty, but claims he was never told the possible deportation consequences of his actions. “Sweeping changes made to federal immigration law in 1996 retroactively expanded the definition of ‘aggravated felony’ for immigration purposes,” Baldacci’s office said.

In 1993, when Blakesley pleaded guilty to burglary, it wasn’t considered an aggravated felony, but it became an offense that could lead to deportation three years later, Baldacci’s office said.

“The punishment of deportation does not fit the crimes for which Paul Blakesley was sentenced,” Baldacci said. “Since his last conviction, he has stopped using and growing drugs and he has married and started a family. There has been an outpouring of community support for his pardon.”

To break up his family or force his family to emigrate to another country “is too extreme,” Baldacci said.

“Granting pardons is one of the hardest decisions that a governor faces,” Baldacci said Wednesday in a written statement. “The people seeking pardons have committed crimes, have been judged and punished for their actions. Neither of these men would have received pardons had they not been facing deportation to countries in which they have no ties or connections and if the consequences of that deportation would not have added new victims to their cases. I have considered these pardons carefully, over a long period of time and believe they serve the best interest of justice.”

In 2010, 193 people petitioned for pardons, Baldacci’s office said. He granted pardons to 51 petitioners, some of whom received pardons for more than one offense. In 2009, eight petitioners were pardoned; in 2008, 19. In 2007, 16 received pardons; in 2006, eight. In 2005, 18 people were pardoned, up from 13 in 2004. In 2003, he pardoned six petitioners.

Gov. Angus King pardoned an annual average of 18 petitioners for the final three years he was in office, according to Baldacci’s communications office.