We recently picked a jury, and set a later date to begin the trial. In the meantime, we discovered that one of the jurors has a conviction for theft. Under the code, he is absolutely disqualified from jury service. I notified our Judge immediately. The Judge's plan is to contact the next person in line from the original jury panel, and have that person serve in place of the disqualified juror. This does not seem right to me, but I can't find a section of the code which addresses this. Help!

You don't say whether the defendant agrees with this procedure. Just about anything is OK with the defendant's approval.

But, if the jury has already been sworn in, and you didn't select alternate jurors, I am not aware of anything in the Code of Criminal Procedure that would permit the judge to follow the procedure he has suggested.

What about proceeding with 11 jurors with the defendant's consent?

If your jury has been sworn in then your judge cannot replace the disqualified juror.

The defendant can waive his right to 12 jurors. Hatch 958 sw2d 813 (CCA 1997).

The procedure your judge wants to use is only okay if the jury has been selected but not sworn. See Williams 631 sw2d 955 (Austin 1982), Juarez, 890 sw2d 184 (Corpus Christi 1994), Winfrey, 11-01-00166-CR (Dallas April 17, 2003).