This post would be more appropriate as a comment, but I cannot post comments, so here it goes.
I have had the same problem. I run Windows 7 with SP1. I accidentally installed the 32 bit version, instead of the 64, of SQL Server Express 2012 SP1 on my 64 bit system, and could not remove it due to the above error.
I have followed John S's advice and changed the compatibiliby mode of setup.exe to Vista SP2. On my machine, this file was located in: C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft SQL Server110Setup Bootstrap.
After that I was able to run the "Remove" option from the control panel with success.