[3] The county was created on February 3, 1786, and is named for Nathanael Greene, an American Revolutionary War major general.

An avalanche of complaints about the state of public defense in Greene County, along with a number of lawsuits filed by Stephen Bright and the Southern Center for Human Rights, contributed to the formation of this commission.

The commission discovered during its investigation that indigent defendants in Greene County were routinely pleaded guilty by judges without the presence of counsel and sometimes without even being present in court to make their pleas, violations of the Sixth Amendment.

After two years of investigation, the committee's recommendations led to the passage of the Georgia Indigent Defense Act.

From 2000 onward, it has been consistently Republican due to the growth of white residents moving to Reynolds Lake Oconee.