RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - The mayor of Charlottesville called on Friday for a special session of Virginia’s legislature to let localities decide the fate of Confederate monuments like the statue at the center of a far-right rally last week that turned deadly.

Mayor Mike Signer issued his appeal amid an increasingly contentious debate over what to do with memorials to Confederate figures, who fought for the preservation of slavery during the U.S. Civil War, that are seen by opponents as offensive.

In what has become the biggest domestic crisis of his presidency, Donald Trump has been sharply criticized, including by fellow Republicans, for blaming Charlottesville’s violence not only on the white nationalist rally organizers, but also the anti-racism activists who opposed them.

“Whether they go to museums, cemeteries, or other willing institutions, it is clear that they no longer can be celebrated in shared civic areas,” Signer said in a statement, referring to the statues. “We can, and we must, respond by denying the Nazis and the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and the so-called alt-right the twisted totem they seek.”

A 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and several people were injured when a man crashed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters at last Saturday’s rally.

A 20-year-old Ohio man has been charged with her murder. On Friday, he was handed five new felony counts of malicious wounding, with the charges related to serious injuries inflicted on people hit by the vehicle, Charlottesville police said.

Some attendees at the rally were heavily armed, and Signer said in his statement he was also calling for legislation that would let localities ban open or concealed carry of weapons at some public events. And he said he wanted to find a way to memorialize Heyer’s name and legacy.

Heyer’s mother told a memorial service on Thursday that her daughter’s killers tried to silence her. “Well guess what? You just magnified her,” Susan Bro told the service.

Signer said that memorial was a profound turning point for him, and that it made him realize the significance of the city’s statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee had changed.

“Its historical meaning now, and forevermore, will be a magnet for terrorism,” the mayor said in his statement.

The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee sits at the center of the park formerly dedicated to him, the site of recent violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

RALLYING POINTS FOR RACISTS

Also on Friday, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order temporarily banning protests at the Lee Monument in downtown Richmond while new regulations governing demonstrations are put in place, the governor’s office said.

In many places, Confederate monuments have become rallying points for white nationalists. Efforts to remove many such statues have been stepped up since the Charlottesville rally, which was called by far-right groups to protest against plans to remove the Lee statue.

In Maryland on Friday, authorities took down a statue of a 19th century chief justice, Roger Taney, who wrote an infamous 1857 ruling known as the Dred Scott decision that reaffirmed slavery and said black people could not be U.S. citizens.

Trump on Thursday decried the removal of such monuments, drawing stinging rebukes from fellow Republicans in a controversy that inflamed racial tensions nationwide.

The mother of Heyer, the woman killed in Charlottesville, said in a television interview on Friday that after Trump’s comments, “I’m not talking to the president now.”

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“You can’t wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m not forgiving him for that,” Susan Bro told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

There are more than 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces across the United States, with 700 of those being monuments and statues, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

The large majority of these were erected long after the Civil War ended in 1865, according to the center, with many going up early in the 20th century amid a backlash among segregationists against the civil rights movement.

More than half a dozen have been taken down since Saturday.</s>Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House, ending the monument’s 145-year perch on the prominent spot in Annapolis.

At 12:20 a.m. Friday, flatbed trucks with equipment including a large crane pulled onto State Circle, the street that surrounds the State House. Workers cordoned off the front lawn of the historic building and placed straps around the statue.

Just before 2 a.m., the statue was slowly lifted from its base and clipped a few tree branches as it was guided onto a flatbed truck and wrapped. The statue will be moved to a secure Maryland State Archives storage facility, according to an email outlining the operation obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The move comes after mounting pressure to do away with the Taney statue culminated in Republican Gov. Larry Hogan announcing his support for removing it and the State House Trust voting Wednesday to do so. Potential changes to the historic building and its grounds must be approved by the four-member trust.

Taney was chief justice of the United States and author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery and found that black Americans could not be citizens.

The decision has led Taney to be linked to leaders of the Confederacy. Efforts to remove his statue in Annapolis over the years have failed.

But such efforts became more urgent in the past week, and the Annapolis statue — installed in 1872 — is the latest monument linked to the Confederate era to go.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered middle-of-the-night removals of four monuments in the city this week: one of Taney, another of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument and a Confederate Women’s monument. The Democratic mayor’s decision came a year and a half after a city panel recommended that the monuments be moved or altered to add more historical context.

The Baltimore monuments were stored under tarps in a city lot under police protection.

The Taney statue in Annapolis was under close watch by Maryland Capitol Police officers all week. In advance of the late-night removal, a team of workers inspected the statue and took measurements at midday on Thursday.

In the evening, no-parking signs were posted around narrow State Circle.

About two-dozen onlookers gathered around the street as word spread that the statue might come down. About 1:20 a.m., sprinklers turned on, dousing onlookers and workers until the water was shut off about 15 minutes later.

Gwen Norman of Baltimore happened upon the crowd watching the removal of the statue after a night out in Annapolis with friends.

She was pleased that Baltimore had removed its Taney statue and three Confederate monuments, and felt fortunate to witness the Taney removal in Annapolis.

"It was a beautiful thing to wake up and see something so beautiful happened when I was asleep," said Norman, 27.

"It was nice to see Annapolis get prettier tonight," said her companion, 30-year-old Ian Wolfe of Frederick.

The removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. The rally turned deadly: A counter-protester was killed when a Neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove his car into a crowd, and two police officers monitoring the scene died when their helicopter crashed.

When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who represents Hogan on the trust; House Speaker Michael E. Busch; and Charles L. Edson, who represents the Maryland Historical Trust. The trust’s fourth member, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, did not vote.

Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, called for the statue’s removal Monday. “It certainly doesn’t belong there,” the speaker said. “It's the appropriate time to remove it.”

He said leaving it in place after white supremacists openly rallied “would send a message that we condone what took place, that slavery is alright.”

Miller, who does not support removing the statue, sent a letter to Hogan Thursday evening saying the vote lacked transparency because it was held by email rather than in public.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller wrote. “This was not an ordinary matter of business before the Trust.”

The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, acknowledged “the inflammatory and derogatory language” and the fallout of the Dred Scott decision. But he noted that Taney also “served with distinction” in a series of public offices, including as a state lawmaker, state attorney general and U.S. attorney general.

Miller also noted that Taney freed his slaves and remained loyal to the Union. Miller said Taney’s “complex history” is often lost amid discussion.

Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Hogan, said “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”

Hogan previously supported keeping the Taney statue in place. He reversed course this week, saying removing the monument was “the right thing to do.”

“While we cannot hide from our history — nor should we — the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” Hogan said Tuesday in a statement.

Miller said the installation of a statue of late Justice Thurgood Marshall — the first African-American appointed to the high court — on the opposite side of the State House was “a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing our State and our Country have a flawed history.”</s>ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney – author of the infamous Dred Scott decision – from the grounds of the State House, ending the monument’s 145-year prominent perch in Annapolis.

At 12:20 a.m. Friday, flatbed trucks with equipment including a large crane pulled onto the street encircling the State House. Workers cordoned off the front lawn of the historic building and placed straps around the statue, the latest Confederate-era figure to be removed from a public square.

Just before 2 a.m., the statue was slowly lifted from its base and clipped a few tree branches as it was guided onto a flatbed truck and wrapped. The statue has been moved to a secure Maryland State Archives storage facility.

The removal comes after mounting pressure to take down the Taney statue culminated in Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s reversal on the matter. His support, announced this week, provided enough votes for the four-member State House Trust to approve on Wednesday to remove it.

Hogan’s spokesman, Doug Mayer, said the state decided to quietly and swiftly remove Taney’s statue overnight “as a matter of public safety.” The granite pedestal that supported the hulking bronze statue of Taney since 1872 temporarily remains in place, surrounded by green plywood and guarded around the clock by two officers.

The Taney statue is considered a formal part of Maryland’s art collection, a status that means it will not be destroyed as long as the state owns it.

Elaine Bachmann, deputy state archivist, said there were no immediate plans to relocate or publicly display the Taney statue, which commemorates the only Marylander to serve as chief justice.

Taney’s likeness on the front lawn of the Maryland State House has been controversial since it was installed because of Taney authorship of the 1857 Dred Scott decision that defended slavery, holding that black Americans could not be citizens and “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

The decision, which historians say helped propel the nation toward civil war, has led Taney to be linked to leaders of the Confederacy. Efforts to remove his statue in Annapolis over the years have failed.

As recently as Thursday, as plans were developing for the statue’s midnight removal, Senate President Thomas Mike V. Miller wrote a letter to the governor defending the “complex history” of Taney and arguing why it should stay.

The removal efforts became more urgent in the past week, and the Annapolis statue is the latest monument linked to the Confederate era to go.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered middle-of-the-night removals of four monuments in the city this week: one of Taney, another of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument and a Confederate Women’s monument. The Democratic mayor’s decision came a year and a half after a city panel recommended that the monuments be moved or altered to add more historical context.

The Baltimore monuments were stored under tarps in a city lot under police protection.

The Taney statue in Annapolis was under close watch by Maryland Capitol Police officers all week. In advance of the late-night removal, a team of workers inspected the statue and took measurements at midday on Thursday.

In the evening, no-parking signs were posted around narrow State Circle. While there is not a formal price tag yet for the job, done by Whiting Turner, aides estimated the operation to cost roughly $100,000.

About two-dozen onlookers gathered around the street as word spread that the statue might come down. About 1:20 a.m., sprinklers turned on, dousing onlookers and workers until the water was shut off about 15 minutes later.

Gwen Norman of Baltimore happened upon the crowd watching the removal of the statue after a night out in Annapolis with friends.

She was pleased that Baltimore had removed its Taney statue and three Confederate monuments, and felt fortunate to witness the Taney removal in Annapolis.

“It was a beautiful thing to wake up and see something so beautiful happened when I was asleep,” said Norman, 27.

“It was nice to see Annapolis get prettier tonight,” said her companion, 30-year-old Ian Wolfe of Frederick.

The removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. – ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. The rally turned deadly: A counter-protester was killed when a Neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove his car into a crowd, and two police officers monitoring the scene died when their helicopter crashed.

When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who represents Hogan on the trust; House Speaker Michael E. Busch; and Charles L. Edson, who represents the Maryland Historical Trust. The trust’s fourth member, Miller, did not vote.

Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, called for the statue’s removal Monday. “It certainly doesn’t belong there,” the speaker said. “It’s the appropriate time to remove it.”

He said leaving it in place after white supremacists openly rallied “would send a message that we condone what took place, that slavery is alright.”

Miller’s letter to Hogan Thursday evening said the vote lacked transparency because it was held by email rather than in public.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller wrote. “This was not an ordinary matter of business before the Trust.”

The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, acknowledged “the inflammatory and derogatory language” and the fallout of the Dred Scott decision. But he noted that Taney also “served with distinction” in a series of public offices, including as a state lawmaker, state attorney general and U.S. attorney general.

Miller also noted that Taney freed his slaves and remained loyal to the Union. Miller said Taney’s “complex history” is often lost amid discussion.

Mayer, Hogan’s spokesman, said “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”

Hogan previously supported keeping the Taney statue in place. He reversed course this week, saying removing the monument was “the right thing to do.”

“While we cannot hide from our history – nor should we – the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” Hogan said Tuesday in a statement.

Miller said the installation of a statue of late Justice Thurgood Marshall – the first African-American appointed to the high court – on the opposite side of the State House was “a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing our State and our Country have a flawed history.”

President Donald J. Trump, who was criticized this week for saying blame for the Charlottesville violence was shared by both sides instead of condemning the white supremacist groups, weighed in on the removal of Confederate monuments in a series of tweets Thursday morning.

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” the Republican president said on Twitter, a day after Baltimore removed its monuments. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!”

Now that the four Confederate-linked monuments have been taken down, the City of Baltimore must decide what to do with them

PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194):</s>( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Workers remove a monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney from outside the Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Md., early Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Maryland workers hauled several monuments aw...

( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Workers remove a monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney from outside the Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Md., early Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Maryland workers hauled several monuments aw...

( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Workers sits the monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney after it was removed from outside the Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Md., early Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Maryland workers hauled...

( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Workers positions the monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney on a flatbed truck after it was removed from outside Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Md., early Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Mar...

( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Workers use a crane to lift the monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney after it was was removed from outside Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Md., early Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Maryland...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A statue of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African Americans was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House early Friday morning.

The statue of Roger B. Taney (TAW nee) was lifted away by a crane at about 2 a.m. It was lowered into a truck and driven away to storage. The bronze statue was erected in 1872, just outside the original front door of the State House.

Three of the four voting members of the State House Trust voted by email Wednesday to move the statue.

House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat who was one of the three who voted to remove it, wrote this week that the statue "doesn't belong" on the grounds.

His comments came after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, when violent clashes broke out between white nationalists and counter-protesters. A woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people who were there to condemn the white nationalists, who held a rally prompted by Charlottesville officials' decision to remove a monument to Robert E. Lee.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said this week that removing the statue of Taney in Maryland was "the right thing to do." Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford voted on behalf of the administration to remove the statue.

One member of the trust, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, criticized holding the vote without a public meeting.

"This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred," Miller, a Democrat, wrote in a letter Thursday to Hogan.

While the statue's removal was not publicized, a couple dozen onlookers watched as workers started the removal process shortly after midnight. Some who watched cheered as the statue was lifted from its pedestal.

The statue was removed a couple of days after Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of four Confederate monuments from the city under the cover of night. A statue of Taney in Baltimore also was removed.

Taney was born in Maryland and practiced law in Frederick, Maryland, before becoming the nation's fifth chief justice. Dred Scott and his wife Harriet were slaves who sued for their freedom after they were taken from the slave state of Missouri into territory where slavery had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise.

This year marked the 160th anniversary of the 1857 decision. In March, a family member of Taney's apologized to the family of Scott's in front of the statue that was removed Friday. Charles Taney IV of Greenwich, Connecticut apologized on behalf of his family to the Scott family and to all African Americans for the "terrible injustice of the Dred Scott decision." Lynne Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott, accepted the apology for her family and "all African Americans who have the love of God in their heart so that healing can begin."

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>WASHINGTON — The controversial statue of former Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney was removed from outside the Maryland State House in Annapolis early Friday.

Taney, a Maryland native, was the chief justice who penned the 1857 Dred Scott decision. It upheld slavery in the United States and denied citizenship to black people.

The vote to remove the Taney statue came Wednesday from the State House Trust board, The Washington Post reported.

The statue of Taney will be moved to a Maryland State Archives secure storage facility, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called for the immediate removal of the statue earlier in the week following the protests that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.

“While we cannot hide from our history — nor should we — the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” Hogan said in a Tuesday statement.

Elsewhere in Maryland, Baltimore took down four statues early Wednesday, including one of Taney, a Confederate women’s monument, another of Confederate soldiers and sailors, and one of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.</s>ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – A statue of the of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African-Americans has been removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House.

The statue of Roger B. Taney was lifted away by a crane at about 2 a.m. Friday. It was lowered into a truck and driven away.

A panel voted by email Wednesday to remove the statue, which was erected in 1872.

House Speaker Michael Busch, who voted for removal, wrote this week that the statue “doesn’t belong” on the grounds. His comments came after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. Gov. Larry Hogan said this week that removing the statue was “the right thing to do.”</s>Under the cover of night, a crew prepared to remove the statue of former Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House early Friday morning.

The Department of General Services will remove the bronze likeness of Taney from its base and then cover the base in plywood, according to an email outlining the plan obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The statue will then be moved to a secure storage facility for the Maryland State Archives.

The move comes after mounting pressure to do away with the Taney statue culminated in the State House Trust voting Wednesday to remove it. Potential changes to the historic building and its grounds must be approved by the four-member trust.

Taney was chief justice of the Supreme Court and author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and found that black Americans could not be citizens.

The decision has led Taney to be linked to leaders of the Confederacy. Efforts to remove his statue in Annapolis over the years have failed.

But such efforts became more urgent in the past week, and the Annapolis statue — installed in 1872 — is the latest monument linked to Confederate leaders to go.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered middle-of-the-night removals of four monuments in the city this week: one of Taney, another of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a Confederate Women’s Monument. The Democratic mayor’s decision came a year and a half after a city panel recommended that the monuments be moved or altered to add more historical context.

The Baltimore monuments were stored under tarps in a city lot under police protection.

The Taney statue in Annapolis was under close watch by Maryland Capitol Police officers all week. In advance of the late-night removal, a team of workers inspected the statue and took measurements at midday on Thursday.

In the evening, no-parking signs were posted around narrow State Circle, the street that surrounds the State House.

The monument removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. The rally turned deadly: A counter-protester was killed when a Neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove his car into a crowd, and two police officers monitoring the scene died when their helicopter crashed.

When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who represents Republican Gov. Larry Hogan on the trust; Democratic House Speaker Michael E. Busch; and Charles L. Edson, who represents the Maryland Historical Trust. The trust’s fourth member, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, did not vote.

Miller sent a letter to Hogan Thursday evening saying the vote lacked transparency because it was held over email rather than in public.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller wrote. “This was not an ordinary matter of business before the Trust.”

The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, acknowledged “the inflammatory and derogatory language” and the fallout of the Dred Scott decision. But he noted that Taney also “served with distinction” in a series of public offices, including as a state lawmaker, state attorney general and U.S. attorney general.

Miller also noted that Taney freed his slaves and remained loyal to the Union. Miller said Taney’s “complex history” is often lost amid discussion.

Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Hogan, said “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”

Miller said the installation of a statue of late Justice Thurgood Marshall — the first African-American appointed to the high court — on the opposite side of the State House was “a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing our State and our Country have a flawed history.”

President Donald J. Trump, who was criticized this week for saying blame for the Charlottesville violence was shared by both sides instead of condemning the white supremacist groups, weighed in on the removal of Confederate monuments in a series of tweets Thursday morning.

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” the Republican president said on Twitter, a day after Baltimore removed its monuments. “You can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson — who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!”</s>ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A statue of the of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African Americans was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House early Friday morning.

The statue of Roger B. Taney was lifted away by a crane at about 2 a.m. It was lowered into a truck and driven away to storage. The bronze statue was erected in 1872, just outside the original front door of the State House.

Three of the four voting members of the State House Trust voted by email Wednesday to move the statue.

House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat who was one of the three who voted to remove it, wrote this week that the statue “doesn’t belong” on the grounds.

His comments came after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, when violent clashes broke out between white nationalists and counter-protesters. A woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people who were there to condemn the white nationalists, who held a rally prompted by Charlottesville officials’ decision to remove a monument to Robert E. Lee.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said this week that removing the statue of Taney in Maryland was “the right thing to do.” Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford voted on behalf of the administration to remove the statue.

One member of the trust, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, criticized holding the vote without a public meeting.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller, a Democrat, wrote in a letter Thursday to Hogan.

While the statue’s removal was not publicized, a couple dozen onlookers watched as workers started the removal process shortly after midnight. Some who watched cheered as the statue was lifted from its pedestal.

The statue was removed a couple of days after Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of four Confederate monuments from the city under the cover of night. A statue of Taney in Baltimore also was removed.

Taney was born in Maryland and practiced law in Frederick, Maryland, before becoming the nation’s fifth chief justice. Dred Scott and his wife Harriet were slaves who sued for their freedom after they were taken from the slave state of Missouri into territory where slavery had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise.

This year marked the 160th anniversary of the 1857 decision. In March, a family member of Taney’s apologized to the family of Scott’s in front of the statue that was removed Friday. Charles Taney IV of Greenwich, Connecticut apologized on behalf of his family to the Scott family and to all African Americans for the “terrible injustice of the Dred Scott decision.” Lynne Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott, accepted the apology for her family and “all African Americans who have the love of God in their heart so that healing can begin.”</s>ANNAPOLIS, MD. (WUSA9) - The statue of Roger B. Taney was removed from the Maryland State House in Annapolis overnight.

The controversial statue was removed between midnight and 2 a.m. on Friday.

Taney was a former Supreme Court justice who ruled that all slaves, even free slaves, could not be US citizens.

The scene during the removal process was peaceful. A few locals gathered to take pictures and watch history unfold. The statue has been in place for 145 years.

Governor Larry Hogan gave his nod of approval and then the State House Trust Board voted to remove the statue Wednesday.

There is no word yet on where the statue of Taney will be housed.</s>Work crews have moved onto the grounds of the Maryland State House in Annapolis after midnight to remove a statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

Taney, a Maryland native, wrote the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v Sandford that denied black people US citizenship, and which is said to be the indirect cause of the Civil War.

Washington Post reporter Josh Hicks tweeted a photo of the crew placing straps around the statue around 1am on Friday.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, this week reversed his opposition to removing the Taney statue and other monuments, citing the violent clashes between white nationalists and antifa in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

The sudden decision came with no public hearings, drawing some backlash from lawmakers.

In a letter to the governor, Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr, a Democrat, defended Taney's legacy and said the memorial should remain to help educate people about history.

The letter noted that 'unlike George Washington who freed his slaves upon his death, Taney freed his slaves early in his life,' crediting the former chief justice for his 'anti-slavery words and actions'.

Taney, however, wrote the decision in Dred Scott, which held that black people whose ancestors were slaves were not eligible for US citizenship, and had no standing in the federal courts.

His seven-to-two majority opinion cited legislation and writings from the founding of the republic, including the Declaration of Independence, which Taney said showed that the framers of the Constitution did not consider slaves or their descendants 'as a part of the people'.

The decision was superseded by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, but not before the Civil War rent the nation in two over the question of slavery.
The 145-year-old Roger B. Taney Monument outside Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, is removed overnight by authorities. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan called on Wednesday for the monument to be taken down immediately.