Travis Parker, 13, was pinned to the ground by up to three staffers on April 20 after he protested when he was denied food as punishment, according to documents from the Human Resources Department.

One mother wept for joy, but a grieving grandmother was stunned into silence.

Those opposing reactions marked the tumultuous end to the two-year prosecution against six men charged with restraining and killing a boy at a state camp for troubled youth.

On Wednesday, White County District Attorney Stan Gunter said he will no longer pursue charges against the former camp workers charged in the death of 13-year-old Travis Parker.

His decision followed a judge's ruling Friday to dismiss felony murder and child cruelty charges against the six, whose trials were to start this month. "There's nothing left to prosecute in the case," Gunter said.

Hearing the news, Nancy Binford, mother of worker Paul Binford, said "Thank God" and burst into tears. "All six defendants are fine, compassionate, caring young men who have been unjustly treated for two years," she said.

But when Travis' grandmother and guardian, Golden Griffin, learned of Gunter's decision, she was silent for a moment, then said, "I don't have any comment now."

The workers were either fired or left their jobs after the incident at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp in Cleveland, in North Georgia. Since then, several said they've lived under intense public condemnation and essentially have been barred from working with children.

Griffin's lawyer, Harold Spence, called the outcome a "profound injustice." He said, "It's a shame that it appears that no one will be held accountable for Travis' death, and that the state medical examiner somehow provided the ammunition for the defense that Travis Parker was somehow the architect of his own death."

Travis died in April 2005 after being restrained for about 90 minutes and losing consciousness. He had angrily confronted a counselor for denying him food as punishment and was then held face down on the ground in a "full-basket" restraint by about three of the men at a time.

The incident created a shake-up in the agency that oversees the state's wilderness camps for young people.

After the death, state officials ordered retraining of staff at the camps and reviewed policies on restraints. The state agency also fired an official responsible for training at the camp where Travis was. Officials said the trainer was fired for not cooperating with the investigation into the incident.

The camp is run by the state Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases, an arm of the Department of Human Resources.

The prosecution's case against the camp workers had suffered several setbacks.

Particularly damaging was pretrial testimony by the state's medical examiner, who performed the autopsy on the boy. Dr. Kris Sperry linked the death to the boy's prolonged resistance to the restraint. He said that if Travis had not struggled so long, he would not have died.

In dismissing the murder and child cruelty charges last week, White County Superior Court Judge Lynn Akeley-Alderman ruled that the workers restrained the boy as they had been trained and consequently couldn't have known their actions could result in a crime.

District attorney Gunter said the new evidence and testimony convinced him the charges against Ryan Chapman, Binford, Mathew Desing, Torbin Vining, Johnny Harris and Phillip Elliott should be dropped.

Gunter said Wednesday that the agency that runs the camp did not properly train the workers in the dangers of the hold. "The state of Georgia is at fault for Travis' death," he said.

Agency spokeswoman Kenya Bello declined to comment Wednesday, saying, "It is not appropriate for us to comment on court matters."

DHR settled a lawsuit filed by Griffin last October for about $1.7 million, Spence said.